She's an emotion avenger
by maggiequeen
Summary: We don’t need to do the icky love stuff, walk hand in hand, meeting the parents, touching in public! That’s all show for the world! It’s better this way, just the two of us."-"It's not enough," Warren determined. Warren/OC
1. Where’s the girl?

Chapter 1: Where's the girl

Chapter 1: Where's the girl?

"I say we bring down Rams, become the leaders of the Agency and get ouselves out of cleanning duty," Will spoke his mind, mopping the already stainles white marble floor.

"Yes, and then all the superheroes in the country would get to us and put us in prison for what they'll assume to be a mayor overthrow," Warren replied to his friend. "We can't do anything."

"Unless..."

"William..." Warren started warningly.

"If we find the way to blackmail Rams..."

"Do I have to remind you what happened the last time we tried to plot our way to a better job in here?"

"Bathroom duty wasn't that bad!" Will stated.

"It was awfull and you know it, Stronhold."

"Yeah, it was," he admited and sighed loudly.

Generally, Will Stronghold would have never even consider the small posibility to seek for a faster, easier and rather dishonest way to get himself to what he wanted; being the son of two honest, selfless superheroes, he had been taught that hard work, honesty and perseverance were the only way to get on the right path in life, and he believed in that. That is, until his well-intentioned father got him and his best friend Warren Peace an internship at the Hero Supplier for Assistance to the Citizen Agency, the place that received phone calls from every civillian in trouble in Maxville City and its surroundings, sending heroes fit to resolve whatever problem was the cause of the phone call, from lovely kittens that couldn't get down a three to overly sized meteors ready to crash onto the face of Earth and vanquish every single last trace of human life. Will and Warren had been very excited to work there but as time wore on any slight trace of excimetment had vanished; they had thought they would be sent to missions to acomplish –maybe not big, life threatening missions, but missions at last. How wrong had they been. The most impresive thing the had done in the whole two months they had been there was to escort an angry old lady with vandalism tendencies to the front door after she had trashed the reception desk while complaining for the destruction of her car when a hero from the Agency had stopped a three branch to fall over some children, diverting it's previous direction towards said lady's car. Other than that, cleaning was their only job, which even kept them at the Agency during the night after most people had gone.

"What really pisses me off is Mark Page swaggering around, bragging about his missions. If his father wasn't the head of Assignment he'd be cleaning with us." Will went on.

"Yeah, I hate that guy too," Warren admited, quiting on mopping. "He doesn't even have a decent power; all he can do is create force fields."

"Yeah, what is that good for?"

"It's not like he can fly or has super strenght," Warren added.

"Or has the ability of creating fire and controll it," Will granted.

"And speak every language and understand any form of communication," Warren reminded him.

"Which under the right cicunstances can be an incredibly usefull weapon."

"I know!" Warren said. "But we're not jelous."

"'Course not! Just because we believe we can do his job better than him doesn't mean we are full with envy," Will stated and laughed.

At that precise moment the phone in the reception desk started ringing; Stan, the guy who was on-call that night had been eating hot dogs with chili sauce and had disappeared to the men's restroom a while ago. Will and Warren quickly came near to the red ringing phone, Will reached his hand to pick up, but Warren stopped him.

"We're not allowed to answer the calls, Will, you know that."

"Well, Stan's nowhere to be seen, what if it's important, what if someone's in real danger? Could you live with knowing you could've helped someone instead of calling Stan?" Will asked seriously, knowing potential guilt was the one thing that could bring Warren to do something like that.

"Ok, what the hell."

Will picked up, pressed the loudspeeker button and put the tube down again.

"Hero Supplier for Assistance to the Citizen Agency, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"_I'm at the Maxville bus station... two men just got inside the bus and they have guns! Please, you gotta hel..."_ and then the unmistakable sound of a phone gone dead.

"C'mon! Let's go!" Warren.rushed his friend, his eyes shining with emotion.

"Alright! Wait, you got your emergency mask?" he came to a stop and asked.

"I want all your wallets NOW and if somebody else does something stupid like our limp friend over here you're gonna get something more that a bump in the head," said the 30ish, blondish, shortish man while kicking yet again the uncouncious body of the guy who'd called for help. He had a gun in his left hand and his face was covered with a pantyhose, as well as his partner, a black man who was collecting the money and jewelry from the people on the long distance bus and muttering similar threats in their ears.

They were all very scared; of course, who wouldn't with two guys pointing at you with a gun and saying they will kill you if you didn't cooperate? There was a mother and her young girl in the front of the bus, crying silently and staring at unconcious guy on the floor, an old man with red beard going through his buggage in order to give the robbers what they wanted, a business like man, his eyes shut and probably wondering why on Earth had he taken the bus instead of the plane and a teenage girl, sitting alone in the back of the bus, studying the two "masked" men meticolously, among thirty other people. When the black man finally got to her spot, she started talking, or stutter at the begining more likely.

"Hi," she said not so confident. After meeting his angry gaze, she breathed in hardly and started again. "I'm sure you don't feel comfortable with this."

"Huh?" he mutter.

"I mean, it must be real hard to be here and do what you're doing when you don't really want to. You don't want to do this, do you?" she asked in a soft, yet commanding voice, not letting his eyes look away from hers.

"I..." he started, groggily.

"I'm here to help you," she went on. "Tell me your name," she demanded softly.

"Carl," he answered at the moment.

"You don't want to hurt anybody, Carl; why don't you just put your gun down and then all will be just fine."

As he lowered his gun, always staring at the dark, deep gray eyes of the girl in front of him, his partner came from his back, unseen by the girl as well, and slapped him on the back of his head, hence the black man coming out of his groggy state.

"What are you doing?!"

"I... I don't know..." he said and stared wrathfull at the girl, "What did you do to me?"

"I did nothing to you, Carl, we were just talking," her voice seemed to calm him down instantly, to much displease of the other man, who was about to say something to him, but was stopped by the girl. "There's nothing wrong with talking, is it?"

"I guess..."

"Then why don't we talk and you tell me your name?"

"I don't..."

The other one shook his head slightly, like if he heard a annoying zoomong.

"Tell me," she commanded.

"Johnny."

"Johnny, I was just telling Carl how great it would be if you let us all go. Didn't we, Carl?" she turned to the coming out of trance man.

"Huh... yeah..."

Now Johnny was blinking too much.

"Wait... what are you...?"

"You both listen to me very carefully, you want to put your guns down and let us all go, do you undestand?" they nodden. "Now do it."

They were lowering their guns and for the second time in the last ten minutes, she thought she had the situation under controll, till for the second time in the last ten minutes something interrupted her.

A loud sound came from the front of the bus and two men went flying across the windshield –one of them carrying the other- and into the bus; they landed and everybody could get a good look at them, one had light brown hair and was wearing jeans, a white and red t-shirt and blue sneakers, a white, red and blue mask covering half his face, half a head shorter that his fellow, who had dark, almost black hair with a single trace of red, wearing jeans also and a black t-shirt with details in red and who's mask was entirely red.

At the moment they appeared, Carl and Johnny came out of their profound absorption, therefore pointing their guns at the newcomers and ready to shoot. The people in the bus, cried with fear and they all covered their heads and every other part of their body exposed to gunfire.

Red mask guy made fists and fire apeared in his hands and he throw a fire ball at Carl and Johnny, as red, white and blue mask guy flew his way to them. Carl and Johnny, bent down to dodge the fire ball, leaving the girl widely exposed to it; she raised her hand right away and the fire ball changed it's direction and hit the window. Red, white and blue mask guy jumped over them and with amazing strength he threw Johnny out of the bus through the window and followed him to continue the fight outside, while red mask guy was taking everybody out of the bus. The girl quickly picked up her bagpack and followed the runnig crowd, but fell to the floor when Carl grabbed her by the ankle; she kicked him in the face and got away, but tripped as she tried to get back on her feet. Carl was quicker that her and took a hold of one of the few people remainig on the bus, the old man with the red beard.

"Stop it right there!" he shouted at red mask guy. "Stop it or I'll shoot 'em!"

Red mask guy look for his partner, but had no luck in finding him, for he was outside with Johnny and the rest of the group. The only people in the bus were now Carl, his olderly hostage, the girl and him.

"Ok," he put his hand were Carl could see them. "Ok, just let the man go."

"You go and bring my friend first!" Carl demanded.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," red mask guy stated.

"Then I guess you want this old guy dead, huh?!"

It all happened in perfect synchronicity; Carl pulled the trigger the second red mask guy's hands were in flames and throwing fire balls at him and the gun flew away from his hand at the flick of the girl's hand, the bullet breaking another window, people screming outside the bus, and red, white and blue mask guy flew inside the bus once again, crashing into Carl and taking him outside, while red mask guy grabbed the girl and the old man's hands and took them out. Seeing anybody was hurt, the crowd expressed their joy by hugging and letting out air they didn't know they were holding. Red, white and blue mask guy shook hands with red mask guy as the crowd cheered, with Johnny and Carl lying unconcious at their feet.

"Well done, dude!" Will congratulated Warren.

"Yeah, you too..." he was looking at the crowd searching for someone in particular. "Where is she? Where's the girl?"

And as Warren finally located the girl, she was running down the street and turning in the next corner.


	2. Are you trying to get inside my head?

**Hello! here I am, introducing myself -even though I shoul've done it in the first chapter...- firstly: if you're reading, thank you for reading! secondly: if your reading AND you're gonna leave a review, thank you for leaving a review!**

**now, back to business, you know I don't own Sky High. if I did, I probably wouldn't be writing a fanfiction about it. **

**so... oh, yeah "she's an emotion avenger" is the first line of franz ferdinand's _words so leisured_ -in my opinion, one of their best songs-.**

**the first few chapters are kinda short... but they'll get longer after about the fifth.**

**ok, I can't think of anything else to say, so I'll leave you to read!**

**please review!**

Chapter 2: Are you trying to get inside my head?

When she woke up that day while the long distance bus was going through a rural area she would have never thought her day would go on like that.

Like every time she travel by bus, she woke up at dawn curled on her seat at the back, quite far from the rest of the passengers; she opened her bag pack and took out a blue case which contained all her hygiene and beauty product. She left her seat and walked to the bus' bathroom, passing by the sleeping –and sometimes snoring- passengers. Once in the bathroom, and with the ability to maintain balance while traveling in a moving bus, she used the toilet and washed her face and teeth with the many products the case contained; when the job was done, she looked at herself in the mirror, satisfied with the result; her fair skin was completely clean, not even a trace of a pimple or a black spot on it, her dark gray eyes shining with the white light on the bulb above her, and her hair, well, it was clean. That was the only good thing she could say about her hair; of course, the color was alright and she was actually proud of it –you didn't see natural auburn that much- but she felt it kind of hard to show it off since her hair was all curly and big, to say it nicely –at the moment, after sleeping in a bus seat, it resembled more to a nest than a head of hair. Not troubling herself about it –years ago she had decided to give up- she grabbed a blue bun holder and a silver pin and she tied her hair with it. She looked at herself in the mirror once again proud with the result: the bun hold most of the hair and her face was completely uncovered, which seamed to enhance her already beautiful features. The high cheekbones, the prominent chin, the bowed red lips, and the moles, one on her left cheek and another on her throat, just above her collar bone. Finally, she put some mascara and some lip gloss and she was good to go.

When she left the bathroom she noticed they had arrived to Jackville, where they were supposed to make a stop to have breakfast and then leave again. She returned to her seat, seeing most passengers had already woken up, and put the blue case back in the bag pack, checking she had everything on her before she left the bus, ten minutes later, at the announce of the bus driver.

"We leave in fourty minutes, please be here by then."

She went to the nearest dinner and ordered coffee and waffles for breakfast to the smiling blond waiter who showed her to her table. When she started eating, she took a map out of her bag pack and checked and rechecked the route to Merriam Valley, where she was heading. Her eyes stopped in a small point in the map, slightly out of her route, Maxville City, the one city in the whole country she had swore never to go to.

Forty minutes later, she returned to the bus, but find that the bus driver was arguing with the angry passengers.

"What's wrong?" she asked to no one special.

"We're having some mechanic problems, nothing to be concerned about, but we'll have to make a stop in Maxville tonight," he explained.

"But Freeburg is nearer than Maxville," she objected, her voice starting to shake.

"Yes, but the part we need is not available in Freeburg or any other town in our route for that matter; Maxville City is our only choice," he went on.

Her eyes wide open, her heartbeat racing, she followed the rest of the passengers inside the bus and back to her seat. Maxville. Maxville Freaking City. What was she going to do? Should she got down the bus now and take one that wasn't heading there? She took a look at the bus station, but saw nobody waiting; she could always spend the night there and leave next morning, surely a bus would be there by then...

She was grabbing her bag pack as the bus floor under her feet started to move, she was ready to go to the front and tell the bus driver to open the door for her and find a nice motel there in Jackville, when something stopped her. Her reaction was so stupid she would have laughed at herself. They were only making a quick stop at Maxville! It was't such a big deal, she didn't even have to got out of the bus if she didn't want to! She sat back and took her iPod out of her bag pack, put the earphones on its right place and shut her eyes while she let the sound of Franz Ferdinand take her away of her worries about Maxville. Everything was going to be just fine...

* * *

First, the sudden announce of the bus driver that they would have to make a stop in Maxville City, a place she was forbidden to go to, and then the bus hijacking, the meeting with two bad-ass robbers and the display of super powers by two heroes and herself. Could things had ever gotten worse than that?!

She had three rules, three simple rules. To learn about the world as much as she could, to stay safe and away of sight and to never, ever, under any circumstance use her powers in public. So why the Hell had she tried to talk the robbers out of stealing from the passengers? All she had to do was seat tight, give Carl her wallet, wait patiently for them to leave and hope that nobody was hurt. But no, that little, annoying voice inside her head kept telling her to do something, to try and help. And what had she gotten from her stupid heroic lapse? She had broken two out of three rules in one day, and not only had she done that, she had done it in front of two of her own kind, two who wouldn't be afraid to come after her. Which they were doing right now.

Of course, one of them could fly and was easily carrying the other so in no time they were right behind her; running like hell hounds were chasing her, she raised her hand and three garbage cans next to a restaurant flew towards them and hit them hard, which caused them to fall to the floor. She turned in the next corner and immediately saw a mini-market; not waisting another minute she went in a headed to the chubby, dark haired woman behind the counter.

"Welcome! What can I...?" the woman started smiling, but the girl cut her off.

"Silence!" the woman stopped talking at her command. The girl saw the woman's name on a name tag. "Cindy, is it? Listen to me, Cindy, two people might come to get me, but I need you not to tell them I'm here, ok?" the girl crossed the counter and hid behind it. "I am not here, ok Cindy? If anybody ask, I am not here," Cindy nodded firmly and the mini-market doors opened. "Here they come! Act normal, Cindy!"

Cindy smiled widely and greeted the newcomers.

"Welcome! What can I do for you?"

"Evening, ma'am. We were wondering if by any chance you saw girl...?" Will started.

"... about our age...shorty... she had a bun on her head..." Warren added. Behind the counter, the girl suppressed a indignation snort; how dared he calling her short? Yes, she was 5.3, but that was not something to say about a lady!

"No, I didn't," Cindy stated, the smile stil on her face.

"Well, if you do, would you mind calling us to this number?" Will wrote his cell phone on a sheet of paper on the counter. "It's really important."

"I didn't see her," Cindy continued.

"You sure?" Warren asked, suspicious.

"Yes, I swear. She's not hiding behind the counter," she said innocently.

"Shit!" the girl said behind the counter and stood up ready to run away.

Warren and Will looked at each other and run to each end of the counter in order to catch her; Warren almost did, but with an angry shake of her hand, sort of like a slap in the air, the magazine rack next to the door flew to him and hit him on the head. Taking her opportunity, the girl run passed by Warren and out of the front doors towards freedom, which she was sure she had accomplished, until she felt something really heavy jump over her and smashed her to the pavement.

"Get off me, pal!" she shouted.

"Will you stop running away from us?" Warren's husky voice asked.

"NO!"

"Then I don't think I can let you go," he answered calmly to her yelling.

She sighed.

"C'mon!" she asked more kindly, starting to feel pain on every inch of her body. "You're twice as big as I am, you're hurting me," she pleaded.

Warren immediately got up, remorse running like a wild river on his face.

"Sorry about that."

"As you should! It's gonna be a lot worse tomorrow," she replied, sitting straight on the pavement and inspecting her arms, legs, chest and back. It wasn't that bad, yes, she was going to get a couple of bruises, but it wasn't like he broke her a bone or something. _But they dodn't need to know that_, she thought and looked up to them. "Why were you chasing me?"

"Why were you running?" Will asked.

She hold his look and didn't say a word.

"What's your name?" Will continued.

"What's yours? Flag Boy and Sparky?"

Will looked up to Warren for help, which he gladly provided.

"I'm Warren," he took off his mask –not before making sure there was no one around-. "This is Will."

"Hi," Will did as Warren.

"Regina," she muttered. _What?! Did you just tell them your name? What's wrong with you?!_ She slapped herself mentally._ Now you know their names, do your thing and get the Hell away from here!_"Warren... Will... It must be real tyring to go after every bad guy in town, you can go and leave me here, I won't cause any trouble," she stated softly, making eye contact with Warren and prying to God that her powers would work better that last time.

"What are you doing?" he asked raising his eyebrows, not even slightly groggy.

She breathed in hard and tried again.

"Don't worry, _Warren_, everything is going to be fine, just listen to my voice and calm down," Warren shook his head, confused.

"Are you trying to get inside my head? Cuz if you are, it's not working," he clarified.

"Damn you!" she stood up, almost too fast and felt dizzy. _No,_ she thought, _I overpowered... I'm going to faint..._

And she did, right in front of Will and Warren, who rushed to her and kneeled next to her.

"What are we gonna do?" Will asked.

"Let's take her to the Agency, maybe somebody knows her," Warren decided, lifting her.

* * *

**so?? review please!**


	3. Your middle name says a lot about you

**Hi again! thank you so much for the reviews I got for last chapter (though I wish I get more for this one..) now, remeber I told you the first five chapters were slow and short? well this is the shortest! **

**anyway, I hope you enjoy and stick withthe story until things get more interesting... which will be soon, I promise.**

* * *

It was Regina's favourite time of the day, the first few awake seconds right before she opened her eyes to the morning day. To her, they were the most peaceful moments, the most relaxing, as she listened to movement outside her motel bedroom, the gigglieng of the couple next door, the cars in and out of the parking space, the wind, the birds... Birds? That didn't sound like birds; it was more like a beeping... and the giggling sounded _so_wreird... almost like words, two people talking...

"Her vitals are stable, and the blood tests were all fine. Lets keep her on possumthol," a man said.

"Sure thing, Doctor," a woman replied.

_Oh, God,_ Regina thought. _Am I in a hospital? Why am I in a hospital?_

Concentrating hard and not opening her eyes she tried to remember what had happened... and remember she did. Warren and Wil, the masked heroes, had chased after her and afterwards she had fainted. Regina inwardly shrinked; she had fainted bacause she'd used her powers and she knew that could happen if she used them too much and too often. _Damn heroes._

She should open her eyes and face whatever horrors the heroes had prepared for her; maybe they would sent her to prison... no, she hadn't done anything, tecnically, they couldn't do that, could they?

Breathing in Regina opened her eyes expecting to find herself lying in a filthy bed in a filthy hospital, like the ones they used to treat villains, but felt surprised and uterly confused to be covered with soft, clean covers, in a white and light yellow hospital privet room. She moved slowly and realized she a peripheral IV in her right hand and was conected to a heart monitor –the thing she had previously mistaken with birds. The nurse, a black woman with kind eyes and straight hair approached her.

"Good morning, Miss Boomowski, so happy you could finally join us," she greeted and checked Regina's blood pressure.

"Where did you get that name?" Regina asked in a tired, husky voice.

"The police took your fingerprints when first got here. That's your name right?" the nurse went to the end of the bed and read the chart. "Boomowski, Regina Roxanne?"

"Yeah," Regina said lowly.

"Well you're fine, medically at least; we're treating you with possumthol, a drug to strengthen your powers; it was some relapse you had last night. Some people are commin' to talk to you, I'll be back later with some breakfast, ok? My name's Grace, by the way."

Regina nodded and Grace left the room; she covered her face wih her hands, desperately trying to find a way out of that. If they had taken her fingerprints and they knew her name, that meant they also knew who her parents were and what they had done. Uncertainty drenched her as cold water would and just before she started crying the door opened.

"You're not thinking on running away again, aren't you?" Warren asked, teasingly.

"It's not funny!" Regina cried, clearly not getting the humor on his voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Just thought I might drop by," he said and leaned on the door he had just closed.

"You don't undestand!" she started sobbing. "They're gonna put me away... or... or... who knows what they will...!"

"Hey," he came nearer to her and handed her the tissue box resting on the night table. "Don't cry..."

"Don't cry?! Is that all you can come up with?!"

"Sorry, jeez..." he stopped at her angry look. "Why are you so upset about anyway?"

"Did they tell you my name?" she asked and Warren nodded. "Do you know who my parents are?"

"Yeah."

"Do I have enough motives to cry?"

"Because of your parents?" he asked. "Wait, you don't think their gonna put you in prison for what your parents did, do you?"

Regina didn't answer and looked down.

"Whoa, you really are stupid," Warren stated.

"Excuse me?"

"You're not responsible for what your parents did."

"That is so easy to say," Regina snorted.

Warren seamed to think about what she had said and for a moment Regina thought she had won the battle.

"My father is Barron Battle."

She opened her mouth to say something, then shut it and then opened it again.

"I thought you were a hero."

"I like to think I am," he granted, smirking. "Nobody put me away for my father's crimes and I'm sure they will do the same thing for you. In any case, they'll just wait until you commit your ow crimes and they'll put you away for that."

"But I don't want to commit any crime," Regina clarified, scared.

"Then, there's no reason to worry," he crossed his arms and his lips curved into a smirk. "By the way, your middle name says a lot about you."

"What, Roxanne? Why?" Regina asked feeling intrigued.

"You know, like the song..." he said.

"What song?"

"You don't know about the song? Oh, this is too good," he laughed.

"I don't find it funny," Regina stated, crossing her arms as well and frowning.

"Of course you don't, you have no idea what I'm talking about!" he laughed harder.

"What is the song about?" she was now exasperated and confused by his attitude. "Is this some sort of lame way to make me feel better and forget this whole crying thing?"

"It depends. Does it work?" he asked, a softer look now in his eyes.

"Kinda."

They went quiet for a while, nothing left to say and so many thing unspoken. _Awkward_, Regina thought.

"Anyway," he said huskily as he walked to the door and opened it. "I have to go. Good luck with your uncle."

_Uncle?_

* * *

The drive to her new home was rather silent. She was sitting in the passenger seat of the dark blue Ford Escape owed by Terry Boomowski, once known as Sonic Boom, currently known as Coach Boomer, her uncle. Yes, uncle. Regina couldn't believe it either, after all her mother had never mentioned she had any living relatives.

When he had entered her hospital bedroom shortly two hours ago along with another woman –who introduced herself as Principal Linda Powers- she immediately understand what Warren had meant by "uncle". He looked a lot like her father, Roger Boomowski, in the height and the brown hair and the face too, except that Boomer didn't have that maniac glow in his eyes she'd been so familiar with while her father was still alive. Not that Boomer looked like the cheering type or anything near that, but he seamed less... psychotic than his brother.

They had told her she'd be living with Boomer from now on, seeing as he was the closest relative aside from his parents –Regina stopped breathing for a whole minute after learning she also had grandparents- who were old and couldn't be troubled with living with a teenage girl. So, Boomer had take full responsibility and custody of her at the moment they contacted him and told him who they had found.

"So..." he said looking desperately for something to say. "Your powers, telequinesia and persuation, that correct?"

"Yep. Don't know where I got telekinesis from, though. I mean, I got persuasion from my mom, except she was better than me at it, and dad could..." she answered.

"Manipulate earth and rock-like materials," Boomer finished.

"Right."

"You got it from your grandpa," he added.

"I did?" she asked smiling at the discovery.

"Yeah, the Lieutenant could sweep your father and I off our feet and send us flying to our rooms with one shake of his head whenever we started fighting," he told her smiling.

"Yeah, will, I can't do that," she commented coolly. "Heavy things give me headache and if I do it often I faint like yeasterday."

"Hum," he muttured. "How long have you had your powers?"

"I got them when I was thirteen."

"So you've been powered for four whole years and you faint whenever you use them?" he asked disbeliever.

"It's hard!"

"Do you practice?"

"Not really... If the tasks are simple and sporadically my telekinetic skills work fine, like lifting a brush or a chair even," she went on as if lifting a chair was such a great deal. "Now, persuasion is harder... I can get people to do stuff, but only indivitually and not too complicated..."

"Sounds pretty limited to me," Boomer told her. "You do know you're gonna have to use your powers at Sky High, don't you?"

That was another surprise she had gotten that morning; she was going to attend to Sky High, a school exclusively for super teens, as soon as the summer holidays were over, which gave her little less than two months to adjust to the idea.

"I'll figure it out," she stated uneasy.

"I'm sure you will," Boomer smirked.

"So, where's your house Terry?" she quickly changed the sugject.

Boomer shrinked at the name.

"Don't call me that! I hate it!"

"It's not that bad," Regina laughed at her uncle's reaction.

"Just call me Boomer, or Boom if you like it better," Boomer told her.

"All right, _Boom_," she granted. "But only if you don't call me Regina."

"You don't like it, huh?"

"No, I do; it's just that my mom called me that and well..."

"Reggie then," Boomer decided grinning.

"Reggie it is!"

* * *

**So? what do you think? review worthy?**


	4. You've been hot since you were twelve!

**Hey, how are ya'll? I'm back, as you may notice, with a new chapter for you to read. actually, this chapter were originally two but at the moment of editing number four I decided it looked better the two of them together, so re-do it. besides, they were pretty short separately and it fits better like this.**

**I hope you enjoy it and you leave me some reviews!**

* * *

_Girl, you really got me now  
You got me so I don't know what I'm doin'  
Girl, you really got me now  
You got me so I can't sleep at night  
Girl, you really got me now  
You got me so I don't know where I'm goin'  
Oh yeah , you really got me now  
You got me so I can't sleep at night_

_You really got me  
You really got me_

_Whoa-oh  
You really got me_

_Please, don't ever let me be  
I only wanna be by your side  
Please, don't ever let me be  
I only wanna be by your side_

_Girl, you really got me now  
You got me so I don't know what I'm doin' yeah  
Oh yeah, you really got me now  
Got me so I can't sleep at night_

_You really got me  
You really got me  
You really got me_

"Are you singing?" Will laughed as he finally made himself present at Warren's room. It had been funny beyond belief seeing Warren singing and moving like he was playing an invisible guitar on the sound of the loud music coming out of his stereo without knowing he was being watched and laughed at by both Will and Layla.

He stopped at the moment, blushing profusely for being caught in the act.

"It's a perfectly good _punk_ song," he said warningly.

"I'm sure it is, and you make it sound just like that," Layla walked to his bed and sat. "So, what are we doing today?"

Warren raised his eyebrows in a _why should I know? _kind of way.

"You think we came all the way over here just to hear you sing like a girl?" Will teased.

"We were thinking to go to the new water park outside town. What d'you think?" Layla told him.

"A pyrokinetic surrounded by water related games? I don't know..." he said.

"Don't worry! If anything happens you can always call the girl you were singing about and ask her to light your fire," Will went on, but quickly shut up as he found himself under Warren's grasp. "Ok, I'll shut up."

Warren smirked at his friend and let him go.

"So, are we going or not?" Layla asked as if it was a normal thing that Warren would fiscally threaten Will after being continuously teased.

* * *

It was Regina's favourite time of the day, the first few awake seconds right before she opened her eyes to the morning day. The warmth in her comfy bed, the smell of her hair on the pillow, the silence that surrounded her. For a whole second she got scared at the silence; had she gone deaf over sleep or something? But no, she quickly remembered, she wasn't deaf, it was just the house and it's sound proof walls.

She opened her eyes and found herself in _her_ bedroom, like in _hers_, not the _motel's_, with it's freshly white painted walls and the medium blue curtains covering the window. The first couple of days she had woken up believing it was a dream and that she'd find herself sleeping in some motel, but no, as the weeks went by she got used to her new home and, therefore, she never again felt confused when she woke up.

Getting out of bed and into the bathroom, Regina remembered the last month she had spent there in Maxville and all the things she had done. First morning was a memorable one, with Boom having her meeting all kind of adults –his coworkers at Sky High- who'd be tutoring her in order to reach the knowledge level required to take the Senior year; seeing she hadn't attended to school for the past four years they all assume she was irreparably dumb and hence the time they'd invest on her would be a complete and absolute waste. Little they know, Regina had managed to steal school programs during her travelling and had studied them carefully, focusing in Maths, English, Science and History, becoming a smart self-shooled girl. The only flaw on her education was the lack of hero-kind knowledge, even though she had tried to keep informed with the happenings of that wold; therefore, for the past month she had been studying –intensively, she might add- Mad Science (which in fact she found easy, to much displease of Professor Medulla, a sarcastic guy who had serious problems when trying to mix into a crowd of regular people because his abnormally sized head), Power Theory, History of Superkind, Hero Ethics, and Comic Comprehension. After the intensive classes she had to take an exam to evaluate her performance. She had earned a credit card of her own –courtesy of Boom- after the results showed she had gotten outstanding grates and was now officially a Senior.

She also had found out the song Warren had mentioned; it was the first day she had managed to get all her work done by dinner and had gotten the chance of doing some research on the net. After she read the lyrics and heard the song –open mouthed and wide eyed- she had cursed Warren, his not so funny sense of humor and his entire family. She also promised right then she'd have to do something to get back at him, but hadn't come up with anything in the past month, even though she dedicated a lot of time on thinking about it before she fell asleep every night.

As she left the bathroom Regina decided she'd spent the day in her pajamas, eating and watching TV –something she hadn't been able to do since she got there-. Delighted with her upcoming day full of laziness, Regina left the room and crossed the hallway heading to the stairs, singing out loud.

"_Did I see you in a limousine, flinging out the fish and the unleavened, you turn the rich into wine, walk on the mean, be they Magdalen at Virgin you've already been. You've already been we've already seen, that the fallen are the virtuous among us, walk among us, never judge us, to be blessed,_" she sang and jumped her way down. "_La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la..._"

And then she stopped, horrified, staring at the twenty strange men dispersed on the living room, who were staring back at her, as well as Boom. She felt her heart hit the floor as she noticed they were about her age and when they giggled and looked at one another, Regina remembered she was only wearing her pajamas –a tight white spaghetti strapped tank top and tiny blue shorts.

Boom, chart in hand, greeted her.

"Morning Reggie."

"Oh crap!" and she hurried upstairs toward her bedroom.

She only went back downstairs fifteen minutes later, once she had modestly covered her body with dark blue jeans and a short sleeved, striped, light gray and blue polo shirt, hoping that the guys in the living room would have already left. Unfortunately, they were still there.

"About time you get down," Boom said. "You two!" he shouted at two guys sitting on the couch, who immediately got up and out of the way. "Come, take a seat."

"I was just gonna have some breakfast..." Regina started but her uncle cut her off by pointing another guy, standing near the kitchen door.

"You! Breakfast!" he ran away.

"That wasn't..."

"Silence! You need to focus here," Boom told her; the guy who'd run to the kitchen came back with a glass of milk and a bagle. Regina didn't even bother to complain for the lack of caffeine in her breakfast; from day one, Boom had banned the consumption of coffee in the house. His reasoning was that caffeine had affected her growing for the past years, hence her short height –Regina had grunted at this-. Therefore, she wasn't allowed to have coffee every day as she was used to and instead she now drank milk or juice with her breakfast. "Fifty three seconds, Roberts; keep it up and you might pull your ass off the bench this season."

"Thanks, Coach."

"Now, Reggie, this is the Sky High football team, my team. Team, say hi to Reggie."

"Hi, Reggie," they all said at once.

Boom looked at them angrily.

"It's Miss Boomowski to you, remember that!"

"Yes, Sir! Hi, Miss Boomowski!"

"Hi..."

"Reggie, the team has gladly agreed to help you with your power development classes."

"Power development? Who's teaching?" she asked.

"I am," he replied matter-of-factly.

"I'm not so sure about this," she continued.

"Well, I am. And I ain't gonna rest till you can lift Jameson right there without even blinking," he went on pointing at the largest and heaviest guy in the room –who winked at her.

And they started to work. First, she had to lift a pencil, which she found extremely easy, and made her feel satisfied with herself as she raised her hand and the pencil started floating... until Boom shouted "WWRROONNGG!" and told her that it was a mistake to use her hands to do such an easy task and that she should be able to do it just by thinking about it; ten minutes later, the pencil was floating and spinning at her command. Later, with her eyes shut, she had to lift ten pencils and sent each flying to a different direction and at the same speed; she found it harder, but something about being surrounded by over twenty people made her keep trying and make an effort to do it well.

They had to take a break about noon, when she suddenly fainted trying to make two chairs dance; Regina woke up twenty minutes later lying on the couch, alone in the room. She got up and went to the back yard, where she found the team gathered in circle, two of them in the middle fighting. She would have thought something wrong was happening if Boom hadn't been there, telling the guys who were fighting what they were doing wrongly. As she came closer, Regina saw it wasn't a regular fight; one of the guys had his hands glowing and as he pointed at his opponent a laser-like beam came out of his hand and stroke the other guy who, after going down and getting a serious burn on his chest, got up and regenerated himself; he then charged at the other and tackled him to the floor. Face in the ground, his whole arms were now glowing and burning the guy over him, but he didn't seam to feel the pain and kept his opponent against the ground as the crowd shouted "Three! Two! One! Yay!"

"Weaber loses! Good job, Goldstain," Boom announced and wrote something in his chart.

"Thanks. Coach," Weaber said, helping Goldstain up.

"Yeah, you still owe me seventy five push ups, don't think I forgot. And you," he pointed at Weaber, "You're doing a hundred!"

"Yes, Coach."

Boom finally laid eyes on his niece.

"You're up! You two!" he pointed at two other guys on the crowd. "Chairs! NNOOWW!"

Regina growled her way to the center of the backyard, the crowd giving her space to work, as the two guys run back from the house each holding a wooden chair.

* * *

"Mrs. McFlawly, I was wondering, when was the last time you vacuumed?" Regina asked as she walked in the kitchen.

"Beg your pardon, Miss?" Mrs. McFlawly said, raising her head from the dishes she was washing.

"It's just that I noticed you never vacuumed since I got here and considering most rooms in this house have carpeted floors it's about time you, I don't know, _vacuum_," she exposed, looking at the fifty-some woman's eyes.

"I'm doing the dishes," she replied, matter-of-factly, as an excuse for not doing the job Regina was demanding.

"Don't worry about it! I'll finish the dishes," Regina got the sponge from Mrs. McFlawly's hands. "You can go upstairs and vaccum. Why don't you start with Mr. Boomowski's bedroom?" she suggested and smiled.

"I may not be able to finish with the rooms by today Miss," she warned. "I still have to go to the supermarket."

"Actually, I'd rather you focused on vacuuming the rooms; I can go to the supermarket."

"Alright, Miss," and Mrs. McFlawly left the kitchen, humming something about how she didn't like strangers interfering with her routine.

"Oh, Mrs. McFlawly," Regina called back; seconds later and after an exasperated sigh her head reappeared in the kitchen's door. "The vacuum cleaner is in _that_ closet," Regina pointed at a door on the other side of the room.

After Mrs. McFlawly left –the vacuum cleaner with her- Regina set up for her current job and reached for the detergent, a little gloomy for she had just done her nails and didn't want to ruin the polish. A lit light-bulb appeared on her mind and she had the sudden idea of using her powers to facility her chore. Regina left the sponge on the sink and looked at the tap, from which almost instantly water started to flow; with another glance at the detergent, it poured some on the sponge, and finally one of the plates floated its way down the water and the foamy sponge started brushing against it; once the sponge was done, the plate rinse out itself and, after a clean towel dried it, it flew to the cupboard and placed itself over the other plates, while another one on the sink was being washed. All the way through it, Regina had been smiling; she had never even tried to do something like that.

"Hey there, kiddo," Boom walked in from the backyard and stared at the scene before him. "Why, check that out! Who'd said that after only ten days you'd get to multitask? Tomorrow I'll have you take a little one on one with one of the guys."

"Why not today?" Regina suggested excitedly; she had learned to like the team and she actually enjoyed her power development classes.

"I have something to do at Sky High, we'll have to put behind practice for today," he explained while he walked to the fridge and opened it. "Where's Mrs. McFlawly?"

"I sent her upstairs to vacuum."

Boom closed the fridge door, a box of apple juice on his hand, and stared at her with his eyes wide open.

"We have a vacuum cleaner?"

"Yep, and I noticed she wastes lots of money in the supermarket so I was thinking I could go instead," Regina announced, the dishes now sparkly and in the cupboard.

"If you want... Make sure you get the chocolate puffs with marshmallows one I like. This one's crap," he said shaking the cereal box in his hand.

"That's healthy! It's good for you!"

"It tastes like freaking hell!"

"Well, if I can't have coffee in this house you shouldn't have your sugar-full cereal either."

"I'm the grown up here, and I want my chocolate puffs with marshmallows!"

"Fine. But don't complain when you end up in the hospital with your colesterol level hitting the roof," Regina threatened.

"What's up with you taking over control of the housekeeping?" he changed the subject at the chance.

"One of the foster families I lived with before I run away owned a motel, so I learned one or two things about running the dosmestic," a loud sound came from upstairs and Boom looked up as he could see through the roof. A purse crossed the threshold flying and stopped in front of Regina, who grabbed it. "Sorry, I shut the door almost too hard."

"No problem," Boom replied very impressed.

"I'm gonna go now; can I take the car?" she asked, her eyes clearly saying _pretty, pretty please?_

"Ok, but be careful," he took the keys off his pocket. "And if I see one mark on it swear Reggie..."

"Don't worry! I'll see you later Boom."

* * *

Pushing the shopping cart along the supermarket aisle, Regina was crossing the items she had already gotten off the list she had taken with her: one last visit to the frozen section after getting the cereal and she'd be good to go.

She had to admit she had never thought going to the market and buying food for more than one day was that refreshing. Living in motels and never staying longer than a week in every town, she pretty much depended on dinners and microwave meals; but since she had come living with Boom he had utterly refused to let her eat any of that stuff. All the meals at the Boomowski house had to be home made and consisted of proteins and vegetables; Regina thought it was a great that Boom would take his health –and now hers- so seriously, being a single man living alone until recently. The only thing he wasn't ready to gave up on was that damn sugar saturated cereal, the one she had just grabbed from the shelf and which happened to be the last one of its kind.

"I'm almost done, honey, I just have to get some milk and vegetables... yes, I'm getting your cereal right now," a blond, 40ish woman was speeking on her cell while pushing her shopping cart and looking at the cereal boxes in fron of her.

Regina didn't know much of social behaviour and rules, hiding and avoiding practically all contact with people throughout her entire life, except when she had to buy food or pay for a motel room or a bus ticket, but she knew it was rude to listen to private conversations. However, she couldn't help it; after all, she was still looking for her own cereal.

"No, honey, you can't turn on the air conditioner; you've the flu, remember?" the woman listened to her little child –Regina assumed the person on the other side of the phone was the woman's child and a young one-. "I don't care if you're hot, you've been hot since you were twelve!"

_Not so little, then_, Regina thought grabbing her cereal of the shelf.

"Honey, I'm sorry but I'm afraid they're out of chocolate puffs with marshmallows, I'll take you some crunch..."

Regina looked at the cereal box resting in her cart. Should she do something?_ What would a normal person do?_, she asked herself. Would they gave the woman with the poor, sick child at home the last remaining box of sugar saturated cereal or would they leave the aisle as fast as they could? She had to admit she had done that a couple of times; once, she had rushed to take the last frozen pizza from a kid who had bent to tie his shoes and fled the scene at a heartbeat. _But now it's different,_ she thought._ Now I live here, it's not just some town I'm passing by, I have to make an effort and be nice to people. Besides, Boom'll thank me... eventually._

"Excuse me, ma'am," Regina said and pushed her cart near the woman. "You have a sick kid at home?"

The blond seamed to think about that for a second.

"Sort of."

"You can take this," Regina handed her the cereal box. "My uncle really doesn't need to eat it," she smiled.

"That won't be necessary..." the blond said, blushing.

"Please, I've been looking for an excuse not to buy this. You'd be actually doing _me_ a favor," Regina went on.

"When you put it that way..." the woman took the box Regina held. "Thank you, my son will appreciate it."

"No problem. I'm Regina."

"Melanie," they shook hands.

"Anyway, I still have to get some stuff so..."

"Yeah, go! I'm sorry to hold you back like this," Melanie said.

"That's okay. I'll see you around," Regina started to walk away and waved her hand.

When Regina had turned the corner and Melanie was left alone in the aisle, she remembered she still had her phone on her hand and her son in the line.

"Sorry, hon, I just got your cereal. Let me ask you something; what was the name of that girl you and Will caught...?"

**I don not own "You really got me", duh, but I still have to say it to avoid law suit. haha**

**who just looovvved Warren singin'? I know I did...**

**please leave a review!**


	5. You literally ran into me

**Lets play a little game... I update a new chapter and you guys leave a review! that way, you're happy with the chap and I'm happy with your feedback!**

* * *

Chapter five: You literally ran into me.

Regina walked in the hairdresser determined to walk out of that place feeling satisfied; in only a week she'd be attending to Sky High and with that her settling down would be finally complete and true to everybody, specially for her. After she went to school there'd be no going back, no leaving town in a rush and no sleeping in cheap motels and buying food for the day. In only a week, she would have a normal life.

And having a normal life implied her having a normal hair cut.

"Hi, welcome to Sloan's Salon; my name is Carry, what can I do for you?" the fashionable twenty-ish woman asked. She had shoulder length, choppy, straight silvery blond hair with black locks. While appraising the girl's trendy look, Regina felt her heart sink and she immediately blushed remembering how terribly unmanageable her own hair was and the severe dutch braid she had combed her hair into that morning.

"I need you to do something with my hair, anything..." Regina said while Carry led her to an empty chair in front of a mirror. Once she had sat, Carry put a pink robe around her and started to undo her braid. "It's too long, too curly, too... eww."

"Don't say that! I love your color, you don't wanna dye it, do you? Cuz that'd be a crime," Carry said, stroking Regina's hair.

"No, no... just do whatever can be done. Oh," Regina went on "I don't do straight, and/or shoulder long; last time I tried I ended up wearing a hat for six months."

"'kay," she laughed and studied Regina's waist length, curly, auburn hair. "I'm thinking mid-back, layered, but not too short on the crown cuz of your curls... unless you like it like really 80s?"

Regina shook her head quickly.

"With this hairstyle you can really take advantage of your color and your curls, and you're gonna be able to use it loose..."

"I'm gonna need the possibility of braid it if I don't like it," Regina clarified.

"Don't worry 'bout that, the hair cut will allow you that. Maybe you won't get a medieval braid like the one you had when you came in, but still..." Carry grinned at her.

"Excuse me? Are you making fun of my hair-associated issues?" Regina inquired haughtily.

"No, no... it was a joke..."

"Well, less jokes and more work, shall we Carry?"

And Carry then began to work, without saying another word other than to inform Regina what she was going to do before she'd do it and to get her permission. For nearly half an hour Regina sat in her chair supervising the hairdresser by looking at her in the mirror, her eyes clearly saying her hair better look great when Carry was done unless she wanted trouble.

Carry, worrying about her job, cut Regina's hair flawlessly and after she had finished cutting it she dryed it carefully and then combed it. The result, Regina must admit, was wonderfull; her color seamed to intensify and her curls were no longer cupid like, but big and wavy, and now it was less frizzy and more manageable. She actually liked it and could see herself wearing it loose.

"You look like a Greek goddess," Carry commented smiling.

"Yeah, I do," Regina admited asked suddenly sharply "What's the catch? After I wash it it's gonna be just like before?"

"No, no, it'll look just like this..."

"Oh, please, don't think I don't know the kind of magic you people can do with a hair dryer."

"I swear I didn't do anything! If you want I can make it wet again and you can wait here till it dries itself..." Carry suggested at the brink of crying.

"I can work with that."

In less than two minutes Regina's hair was wet yet again and she was moved to a couch aside the main area so that another woman could take the chair in front of the mirror; next to Regina there was a girl about her age, tall, pretty, wearing almost too much green and flower** pattered **clothes who had a white towel around her head covering all her hair. She was pretending to read a magazine but –Regina could easily notice- she was in fact glancing at Regina every few seconds.

"I'm gonna be sitting here for a long time so if you want to say something, this'd be the right time, just before I get annoyed by your conspicuous looks," Regina said grabbing a fashion magazine from the table next to her and flipping through it.

The girl's eyebrows hit the ceiling and she seamed to be lost for words after Regina's statement, whether it was because she was scared to say what was on her mind or because she actually couldn't think of anything to say was a complete mistery to Regina. The girl finally smiled and opted for diplomacy and niceness instead.

"Hi, I'm Layla," she held her hand to Regina to shake it, which she did.

"Reggie."

"You new in town?" Layla asked.

"You could say so, yeah," Regina replied.

"If you don't mind me saying this, but Carry really did a good job on your hair," she went on, a little uneasy about Regina's possible response to her comment.

"I know, I just want to make sure it'll look this great everyday," she answered calmly. "Did you know this magazines are last year's?"

"Yeah, that's why I brought my own," Layla said showing her the August issue of Cosmo Girl. "I have Vogue too if you want to take a look at it," she offered and opened her bag pack.

"Thanks," Regina took the magazine Layla gaved her and smiled apologizing. "I'm sorry about before; I'm not used to deal with people."

"Don't worry. So, where do you go to school?"

"Uh... I just enrolled, I don't remember the name... where do you go to?" Regina asked thinking hard of cover for Sky High.

"I go to the local high," Layla replied without lifting her eyes from her magazine.

"Oh, well, I think mine is private..." she said vaguely.

They sat there for about forty minutes, chatting coolly and reading the magazines, often telling each other about something interesting the had just read; they ended up laughing at a women, discreetly, of course, who had walked into the salon and stated she had tried to dye her hair at home but forgot to wash off the product while she was watching her soup operas, being the result an ugly shade of orange instead of the blond the woman intended to get.

To Regina, this was whole new experience, since she had never before had someone of her own age to talk to, save for the other foster kids she had lived with before she ran away when she was thirteen. She had to admit that after the first impression, Layla turned out to be really cool and easy to talk to; internally, Regina was dancing. She had thought it'd be harder to make friends and here she was, sitting in a salon, getting a whole new hairstyle and making friends with a girl she didn't even know her last name.

"Look, your hair it's dry! It looks just like when Carry dryed it!" Layla said smiling.

Regina turned around and faced the mirror on the opposite wall; she was right, the soft curls were shinning and in their place.

"Awesome! I think I owe Carry an apology, though," she admitted and Layla half nodded.

A cell phone started ringing at the moment and Regina recognized the tune as her own; she took it out of her purse and quickly answered the call.

"Hello?" pause, "Mrs. McFlawly, what happened?" another pause, "What do you mean you _forgot _to buy the chicken? I specifically told you you had to buy the chicken! How am I supposed to make fried chicken without chicken?" Regina looked at the time in the silver wristwatch Boomer had bought for her. It was almost four o'clock. "No, stay there; I'll go get the chicken. Oh, and Mrs. McFlawly, did you waxed the entrance hall?" yet another pause during which Regina smirked, "Then you'd better be doing that right now, don't you think? Right, I'll see ya in a bit," she hung the phone and looked at Layla who had stared at the magazine during the whole time pretending not to listen Regina's conversation. "I gotta go," she said, really regretting she couldn't stay and hang out more with Layla. "I promised my uncle I'd make dinner tonight and I now I have to buy the main ingredient."

"That's alright, I got your number and you got mine, we can talk later," Layla smiled.

"Thanks! It was really nice meeting you."

Regina waved her hand and headed quickly to the front desk where she paid her bill to a middle aged, tanned brunette; Carry was standing next to the woman and was looking straight to the floor, as if afraid of Regina.

"You did a great job," Regina granted and smiled at the wide eyed girl. "If you accept my apology, I would like you to do my hair next time I come."

"Yeah, sure," Carry stuttered.

"Cool," and with one last smile, Regina left the salon and faced the warm afternoon outside.

_Now, where in Earth can I buy chicken? _The supermarket was too far and Boom had taken the car that day leaving her by foot; there was no way she'd walk all the way down there just to buy chicken and then walk back home. Foolishly, she stood in he middle of the street she was crossing and turned around to see any sing of a grocer's store when all of the sudden a black, shinny, old car came out of nowhere and almost hit her. Regina shrieked and jumped on her place, waiting to get hit and fly away with all the car's strength when the horn went off and the angry driver shouted at her. The car stopped six feet away from her, the engine still roaring.

"What the hell?!" the angry driver shouted as he got out of the car.

Regina removed her hands from her face and gazed at him and just as her heartbeat couldn't go any faster she saw Sparky walking straight to her, infuriated and ready to burst into flames, literally; Regina could swear she saw smoke coming out of him.

"I'm sorry! I wasn't looking!" she squeezed.

"Really?" he shouted sarcastically. When he was two feet away from her he realized who he was talking to. "Regina?"

"Hi..."

"What the hell are you doing crossing the street like that?! I could've hit you!" he went on shouting.

"I said I was sorry and it wasn't that bad!" she argued.

"The only way you could've possibly crossed the street any worse would be if you were blind!"

"Stop yelling at me! People are staring at us," she added in a whisper.

"I wonder why!" he whispered as loud as he could. He sighed loudly and looked at her gray doe eyes. "Where are you going?"

"I... don't really know... I have to buy chicken, but my uncle took the car and I don't want to walk all the way down to the supermarket just to get some chicken so I was looking for a grocer's store nearby when you literally ran into me..." she babbled.

"Get in," he walked to the drivers door and got in the car.

Regina remained put for a whole second during which she considered to decline his offering. After all she had only met him in two occasions, and he had insulted in the last one. Regaining all the anger she had felt when she listened to the song he had compared her with, Regina strode to the passenger's door and leaned on the open window so she could look at Warren straight in the eye.

"There is no way in hell I'm getting in a car with you, Sparky," she stated with a mischievous grin.

"Hmm," he frowned. "And why is that?"

"You called me a hooker!" she cried, getting the attention of many bystanders. Warren frowned once again, this time in a _what are you talking about?_ fashion. "Back in the hospital, you said I was like the song _Roxanne _and I googled it! It wasn't a nice thing to say!"

He then smiled an evil smile.

"Oh, right! I'd forgotten that," he gave her an appreciative look, stopping for more than a second on the V-neck of the blue top she was wearing, which in the position Regina had previously adopted was fully out in the open, revealing mature and firm breasts. "I must say, however, that the way you're standing right now really doesn't help your cause."

"Wha...?"

"Just imagine how this must seem to all those people," he went on pointing at the gossipy bystanders. He shook his head. "Not pretty. Get in, I'll take you to the supermarket."

"Fine!" she got in and sat angrily on the white leather seats; seconds later Warren drove off the street and into the highway.

Regina didn't know much about cars, but as far as she concerned, Warren's was a cool one; the mere smell of it's leather seats screamed macho-macho. Not to mention the loud engine and the guy driving it... _Don't think about that! You horny dummy! Only a minute ago you were mad at the guy! How can you change your mind so damn fast?! _But no matter what the voice in her head would tell her, Regina couldn't help to glance at Warren every now and then; she had tried, however to find him unpleasant, but everything on him, from his black, red stroked hair to his leather boots, passing by his dark red t-shirt and the spiky cuffs around his wrists she found suitable and appealing.

"So," she tried to diverged her mind from a topic she didn't want to cover at the moment. "Cool car. Yours?"

"Yeah," he replied, eyes on the road.

"What kind of car is it?" she asked.

He glanced at her.

"Why are you so nervous?" he asked.

"I'm not nervous," Regina stated moving uneasy on her seat.

"Then why are you trying so desperately to to talk about something you know nothing about?"

"Because I find it interesting," she went on vaguely. After Warren's only response –a disbeliever snort- Regina lost her patience and started shouting once again. "All I did was ask you what kind of car this is, why can't you play along and answer the god damn question? Jeez."

Regina turned her head to the window and fixated her sight on the road they were passing by rapidly, refusing to say anything else to him, even if he begged her to talk.

"It's a 1970, 2-door convertible Pontiac Tempest. Happy now?" he gave up.

"Very much," Regina nodded -_Why are you talking to him?!- _and turned to look at him, only to find him staring at her instead of the road. The air she had just breathed in seamed to froze inside her lungs as she stared back into his chocolate brown eyes until she couldn't move or think... "Eyes on the road, Sparky," was the first thing she could manage to say.

He turned and faced the road, his lips curved into a grin.

All the sudden, Regina felt the air inside the car was too warm.

* * *

"Just grab a freaking chicken and let's go," Warren pleaded for tenth time.

They were standing in front of a long row of differently sized chicken at the supermarket; the air was really cold there because of the huge fridges that contained the chickens and Regina, while leaning over the chickens to examine them and compare prizes and weight, was hugging herself.

"It's not that easy, I have to get the right one," she shivered.

"You cold?" Warren asked.

"Well, aren't you?" she might as well said _we're in the frozen section, like Hell I'm cold!_.

"I'm a pyro, I don't get cold that easy," he shoved closer to Regina and put his hand on her shoulder. Surprised, she backed off. "Will you stay quiet for a sec? I'm trying to do you a favour."

From his hand on her shoulder heat started to drench her. It was an amazing feeling and for a whole minute, as Warren shared part of his heat with her, Regina forgot about the chicken, closed her eyes and allowed herself to just enjoy the moment; even the voice of her conscience shut up for once.

And then he put his hand away, her body instantly missing his touch.

"Thanks..." she muttered. "You must be a mother's dream," _What did you just say?_

Warren, by his look and his up raised eyebrows, was thinking the exact same.

"I mean beacuase never getting cold and all..." Regina scratched her neck nervously and grabbed the first chicken her hand touched. "All set, let's go!"

"Actually, I do get cold, but it takes real drastic changes of temperature for that to happen," Warren added, as he followed her to the register.

She paid the woman for the chicken and they both left the supermarket, Warren carrying the bag with the chicken, toward his car. They both got in, not saying a word, Warren smirking strangely and Regina's mind going ballistic.

_Say something! Anything! You're making him think that you feel awkward for letting him warm you up!_

_But I do feel awkward for letting him warm me up!_ She argued.

_I don't care if you want to hug the guy to feel his hot body! Say something or feel embarrassed forever! And could you please do something about your cheeks? They are giving you away!_

"So," Regina said opening the window to let the breeze inside the car. "I goggled you."

_Don't say _that_..._

"You did?" Warren glanced at her. "What did you find?"

"Nothing; Warren Battle does not exist on the net. You're not very popular aren't ya?" she smirked.

"My last name isn't Battle," he said eyes on the road.

"Oh... I just figured..." she tried to apologize.

"Don't worry; it was an honest mistake," he glanced at her, Regina's cheeks still bright red. "I'm Peace, like my mom."

"Right," Regina thought about the name for a second. "Did you know your name sounds like war and peace?"

"You're not the first one to notice. Sadly, my mom realized about that when I was six months old and chances of changing my name were pretty dead by then."

"Anyway, when I couldn't find anything about you, I goggled your father and read all about the whole Barron Battle-Mrs. Hellfire affair. Did you know there's a website where people post stories made up by them about your parents?"

He fixed his eyes on her, partly disbeliever and surprised. "You're kiddin'"

"Nope. I even read one where your dad never betrays your mom and they lead superkind into making the world a utopia, and later on they're crowned as King and Queen of the world," Regina went on.

"Oh, God, I'm gonna have nightmares..."

"Not to mention all the stories about you," Regina smirked. "I even memorized the summary of one of them. You wanna hear?"

"Please don't," Warren begged.

"_Torn between the horrors of his father and the purity of his mother, Flame Ember..._"

"Flame Ember?!" Warren shouted.

"_... must find his his through the world, apart of the dark legacy he carries upon his shoulders, but often failing. Follow the son of darkness and light throughout a life of sorrow and into a future which will only be brighter if he truly wants it._" Regina recited in a sing sang voice.

"Shoot me now," he said embarrassed refusing to look at his laughing companion. "Here we go," he said stopping the car in front of Regina's home. "Get down."

"C'mon Warren! You know you wanna laugh," she winked at him grabbing the chicken.

"No, I don't." Warren growled as she got out and shut the door.

"Bye Fire Ember!" she said at loud, an evil smirk curving her lips.

"Bye whore!" Warren retorted, loud enough for the neighbour lady next door, who was working on her flowers, to look up at Regina, who run to the house, her cheek brighter than before and swearing upon her mother's life imprisonment without parole that she'd one day get back at him.

* * *

**so? what do you think? you like the Warren-Regina interaction? what about Fire Ember? you know that's funny!**


	6. Eventually is way behind

**Hello my dear readers! here I come after such a long time to bring you yet another chapter of this story. I realized we haven't seen much of Warren, and since he's one on the main characters I figured you'd like to have an "all Warren chapter". so here it is, and I hope you'll enjoy it.**

Chapter six: Eventually is way behind

As he drove off Regina´s home Warren couldn't help the mischievous smile in his face; the indignant snort he's heard coming out of her nicely curved lips after he'd called her a whore was too funny to resist the temptation. What is more, he'd done that fully on purpose, only to see her speechless after her ranting about that stupid story she'd read. It wasn't probably the smartest thing to say, though, since most girls would react badly toward such an insult, which –he grinned as he remembered- he had managed to hurl at least three times since they'd met, and he was sure there plenty opportunities to come to do so again.

Driving out of habit to Will's to pick him up and go the Agency, he left the highway and into the residential area where the Stronghold Household stood. The nice, traditional.looking construction, surrounded by other nice, traditional-looking houses, had nothing in it that would make you think two of the most well-known, prestigious superheroes at the being lived there, along with their super-powered teen son. The Strongholds were, according to their neighbours and like, an ordinary family and all. And, as the ordinary friend of ordinary Will, Warren pressed the horn and waited for his friend to show up.

"Hey, man," Will greeted cheerfully as he opened the car door and sat on the passenger's seat. "What happened? I thought you were gonna come earlier; I had to play Halo 2 with my dad and he's _such_ a lousy loser."

"Sorry; I got... held back," Warren replied, his eyes smiling.

"Uh- huh," Will's eyes narrowed, watching his surroundings as if looking for a clue in the car. Catching something with his sense of smell, he asked: "What's that?" he sniffed. "Is that perfume? _Girl_ perfume?" He grinned knowingly at Warren. "You dog! Who did you take to the back seat this time, anyone I know? And in the middle of the day! Man, I wish I had your guts!"

"Well, regardless how much I thank your admiration, I had no girl in the back seat today."

"Don't tell me it's your mom's perfume, I still haven't got over the time I walked in your bedroom and thought the one in the shower was your latest she-friend and it turned out her shower was broken and she was using yours," Will shivered at the memory.

"That's what you get for showing up in my place when I'm not even there."

"You had the day off and if my memory serves you were with your she-friend that day!"

"But not in my house, and certainly not in my shower," he smirked at Will. "It's been ages, and you still can't look at her in the eye," he bursted into laughter.

"And I probably never will again."

"Not my mom's, anyway," Warren smirked mischievously.

Will waited, and waited, for a whole minute for him to finish that sentence, but since his friend didn't seam to be following that thought anytime soon, he pushed the matter a little more, "Whose then?"

"Regina Boomowski's," he said simply.

"My, my, whatever got in your head," Will spilled out.

"Nothing happened."

"Right," Will agreed.

"I ran into her in town and she needed a ride so I gave her one."

"Like any gentleman would."

"We barely talked, get the dirty thoughts out of your mind, ok?"

"Okey dokey."

"Do you want me to roast you?!" Warren's short temper rose the surface as he parked the car.

"What did I say?" Will inquired innocently, totaly faked, getting out.

Leonard Page just happened to be in the entrance hall to greet the boys at the time. Superhero retired when still in his young years, he had the ability to create force fields, which both his son Mark and his daughter Tess had inherited as well, and was quite a resentful fellow after he had to hang his cloak when Diamond Dame, the villainess who'd been the cause of many heroes to end up dis-enabled after facing her on the field, crashed the force field he was keeping around a building to prevent it from crashing which resulted on the building crashing over him, breaking several bones of his body and causing him permanent physical damage. He had spent many years in a wheel chair and many other in physical therapy to be able to walk like he could now, a slow, spaced walk but walk anyway. All his dreams for greatness had vanished thanks to Diamond Dame, but he somehow saw hope on his son Mark, who he'd expected one day to be great Hero he never got to be.

He was still and important man in Maxville, regardless all that; as the Head of Assignment he had to be able to sort all the heroes on his disposal to suit the citizen's calls for help, and he was one of the most important and respected men in the Agency. Tough he liked to believe he had worked real hard his way into the position he now had –which no one could really deny as the man's life had, indeed, sucked for a long time and he still hadn't refuse to let go- he also found himself often looking down at those who, in his book, didn't deserve special treatment. And William Theodore Stronghold and Warren Peace where currently on the top then of that list.

Granted, one was the son of the two greatest supers at the moment, but that didn't mean he could walk in the Agency like he owned the place, did he? And the other, the gloomy one, he was the son of both a traitor to the heroe kind and dispecable villain, what did he had to brag about?

So it was his job, Leonard believed, to show those two punks life wasn't going to be easy for them just because they had been born in both special, though quite different, circumstances. And if that meant he had to put them on bathroom duty for yet _another_ month, then he'd gladly do so.

"You're late, boys," he greeted stiffly.

"Actually we're early," Will corrected, with all due respect. "Our shift starts in fifteen minutes."

Leonard checked the main clock, up in the back wall where stood the large marble stair heading to the upper floors, and realized he was right. And the kid thought he could talk like that to his superior?

"That tone is out of place, young man," he warned, his fore finger pointing at him.

"What tone...?" Will inquired, conffused and altogether used to Mr. Page's behaviour toward them.

"William," Warren whispered dryly "Shut it."

"What is it what you whisper, Peace?" Leonard questioned, narrowing his eyes and drawing closer to the boys.

"Nothing, sir," he replied respectfully.

"I'm getting tired of your attitude, boys. I must say this was not the behaviour I expected from you when you first started here," he paced up and down in front of them, condecension leaking from his words. "Perhaps I should reconsider keeping you here at all."

"But, sir, we loved this place. We want to be a part of it," Will stated, and it was, at least just one bit, true.

"I'll have to consider this... For the moment, bathroom duty shall do. Oh, but first make sure the upper floors are well-cared. That's all."

He couldn't help the satisfaction smirk in his face as he walked away, living them both infuriated and impotent to do something about it.

* * *

"I hate that man, I swear I do," Will stated as they got in the car, several hours later, in their way to their respective homes. Frustrated, he rubbed his soring hands. "God, that toilet was a nightmare! Honestly, Stan needs to stop eating hot dogs with chili sauce."

"You'd be the one telling him that. I ain't gonna make that guy angry," Warren added, shaking his head, which was also very soring after bending every now and then to pick up every garbage bin in every office in every floor of the damned place.

"Nuclear fire does happen to take the fun out of it, but I still think he should have a bathroom made of lead for his own; there was something definitely cancerous about what I found in that toilet!"

"Argh, spare me the puking, will ya? I actually want to eat tonight," Warren sighed, pressing the gas pedal as he drove off a green light.

"Ah, you miss her already?" Will asked tenderly and smiling.

That question almost caused Warren to crash the car on the mail box up in the pavement; after getting back in control of the wheel, he glared at his friend, who was holding dear life from his seat belt.

"What the hell?!" he shot furiously.

"I'm sor..."

"I don't fucking care your're sorry, I hardly missed the damn thing!" he pointed at the mail box. "How many times do I have to tell you not to annoy me while I'm driving? You know how easily I lose control, and if you don't remember that then surely all the shirts I've burnt when I'd clutched my hands around your throat will be sufficient reminder!"

"Okay, calm down," Will said mildly. "I won't say another word about Regina..."

They went quiet for only two minutes before Will's outspoken personality kicked in to break Warren's gloomy sulk.

"Hey, my mom's been meaning to ask you come over. What'd you say, man, wanna have dinner at my place tonight?"

"Sure, my mom was having his latest boyfriend over dinner anyway," Warren accepted the invitation, which also relieved him to meet the man.

"Ah, the restaurant manager?"

"No, that was Clark; they broke up last month. This guy's a accountant, or something."

"You don't like him either?"

"What's the point? She ain't gonna marry any of those losers," Warren stated, all too sure of the upcoming break-up.

"You never know, man, she might find the one eventully."

"She's been looking for the one for over seventeen years; eventually is _way_ behind."

Although Warren hated to think that way, he was also quite sure he was right; his mother, God blessed her, had been put through Hell and back after what had happened with his father and even though she'd been betrayed beyond belief by him, she still have faith in the male kind, and Warren himself, being part of the kind, had to admit she had utter reasons to be a resentful, hateful, distrustful woman, which she was not in any way. It confused him that while a large part of the super community thought of her as a pariah she'd still go to school meetings and talk well of her fellow heroes and even make up excuses for their treatment toward her; he had to admit not many people could brag of being the forgiving, tolerant person his mother was and that, through it all, it was in fact an admirable trait, but

that didn't mean his short temper wouldn't arise whenever he'd heard a comment about her mother's past, and that had happened a lot when he was a freshman at Sky High. Fortunately, whit a power like his and temper so volatile only few could match, the whispers fade away as the months went by and nowadays it seamed to be a forgotten bussiness. Thank God.

As they were having dinner, congratulating Mrs. Stronghold for the delicious roast biff she'd made, Warren remembered the first time he'd come over to that house. The memory would still make him laugh, with the great Steve Stronghold stuttering and feeling awkward until Warren assured him he didn't have any resent for what had happened whit his father. After that, Mr. Stronghold had become calm and quite funny in his presence, sometimes even giving him advises. Warren would never tell the man that he was the first positive male influence in his life and, had he to respond to anyone other that his mother, that person would be Steve Stronghold.

"So how did you boys do today? Done any saving?" Steve asked cheerfully, a proud blink directed at his son.

"Not really..." he answered and glanced at Warren, whose eyebrow had gone up.

"We got bathroom duty for the next month," Warren informed.

"Again?" Josy took part in the conversation. "It's been two months in a row; I thought the punishment for the bus hijacking was over last week."

"It was, but Mr. Page seams to think we have an _attitude_," Will replied.

"Hum," Steve snorted in displease. He then seamed to think about it better. "Well, he's your boss, and I know Leo for a long time... He can sometimes be kind of an ass, but he's mostly a fair man. I'm sure he's just trying to make the best out of you two and let's face it, all the interns at the Agency get a hard time in the beginning."

"Not his son..." Will said under his breath.

"I did say he could be an ass sometimes, didn't I? But you're just gonna have to suck it up if you want to stay there. I'm sure it'll get better for you eventually."

Quoting Warren, Will went on, his tone a bit higher than before, "We've been there for almost four months, _eventually_ is way behind."

"No one said you'd have the top missions right away, son; there are heroes who have to wait years, even after they graduated, to get some glory," Steve told him warningly.

Will went silent, knowing his father's tone would not allow anymore talking back; he stared down his dessert, almost finished, and then back at Warren.

"Can we be excused?" he asked to his parents after a couple of minutes or so.

"Sure, honey," Josy allowed kindly. After the boys left the dinning room, they could hear her perfectly audible whisper to her husband, "Nicely done, Steve!"

"What did I say?"

Up in Will's bedroom, the two friends were barely speaking. Will, angry at his father for being so little understanding, was pacing up and down, throwing a fifty pounds weight to mid air and catching it like if it was a ball without the slightest effort; Warren, on the other hand was going through his friend's CD collection trying to find something to listen. He finally decided for The Killers and put it on the CD player, as his friend kept pacing, not realizing the weight was dangerously approaching the ceiling every time he'd throw it to mid air.

"I don't think I'll stand that for much longer," he stated angrily.

Warren, understanding perfectly what he was talking about, replied quietly, a way he knew would calm him down. "What are you gonna do then? Quit?"

"Maybe," both Warren's brows arched at his statement.

"I know you're a lot of things Will, but you ain't no quitter."

"A guy can only take so much..." he went on frustrated. "I promise, if things don't change at least one bit soon, I'll walk out of that damned Agency and never go back."

A loud sound, followed by rubbles of the broken ceiling, and Will was covered in white dust. The fifty pounds weight had finally hit the ceiling, causing a large whole in it, connecting Will's room with the attic. He had barely caught the weight, preventing it to fall to the floor and cause more damage.

"Is everything Ok?" Josy's voice came from downstairs.

"Yes, mom, just a little accident!" Will shouted back.

Warren, who was currently laughing at the sight of both the broken roof and his dusted friend, got up from the chair he was sitting on.

"I'll leave you clean the mess, dude. See ya tomorrow," he patted Will's back whit his large hand, making the dust in his shirt to revolve and float.

"See ya," he said in reply.

Warren left the Stronghold's smiling broadly remembering Will's loud sneeze and swearing after he'd dropped the weight and it fall right to his foot just before he closed the bedroom door.

**So?? What do you think?? May I be granted with a few reviews??**


	7. We’re getting bitchy, aren’t we Girly?

**Thanks for all the reviews I got and for the many I'm sure I'l receive for this chapter!**

**School finally begins!! enjoy!!**

Chapter seven: We're getting bitchy, aren't we Girly?

It was Regina's favourite time of the day, the first few awake seconds right before she opened her eyes to the morning day. The warmth in her cozy bed, the smell of her hair on the pillow, the peace and silence that surrounded her... nothing could compare that. She thought she could lay there forever and be perfectly happy with it... until she heard her door open and her uncle shout.

"YOU'RE STILL IN BED!" Regina jumped and looked confused around her. "The bus leaves in ten minutes, why aren't you up yet?!"

"Oh, shit, shit, shit," she checked the time on her alarm a saw Boom wasn't joking. She walked to her closet and opened it desperately grabbing the first clothes she found; glancing at her vanity mirror she saw her hair and almost screamed. It looked like a bird nest just like every morning, except today she didn't have the time to shower. "What am I gonna do with my hair?!"

"Put a hat on it! You're gonna be late!" Boom went on grabbing her bag-pack from the coetrack and putting it over the bed. "I have to leave now, don't miss the bus!" he said approaching to the door.

"Wait! Why don't you to the school, text me when you're there and I'll use my powers to make the jet-pack fly to me," she suggested rapidly, a solution to her problem appearing in her mind.

"Your powers aren't that strong yet and I ain't wanna lose my only jetpack. Hurry up and take the bus; I'll see ya at school."

"Wait!" his frustrated head appeared on Regina's threshold. "Are you wearing shorts?" he nodded. "Why are you wearing shorts? That's not something people would want to see."

Over time she had noticed he preferred gym pants and sweatshirts and she could hardly picture him without that navy blue baseball cap, but those shorts... _God, they're godawful!_

"It's my working outfit! Now could you please hurry and get to school?" and he run through the hallway.

Regina quickly got in the bathroom and faced the mirror. She washed her face and brushed her teeth as quickly as ever without looking at the her reflection; she brushed her hair and in less than a minute she had it combed into a shinny dutch braid. When she faced her image on the mirror, Regina nearly cried, for she found a zip on the left side of her forehead, right where the hair line started; while her conscience cried _Today, of all days...! _she covered it some make up and left the bathroom, cursing whatever god had thought it was funny to make her first morning before school become a living hell. Just when she thought things couldn't go any worse, she realized the blue shirt she intended to wear had a stain, and a very noticeable one; going through her closet and with only five minutes to catch the bus, Regina couldn't find anything to wear. It took her two minutes of her precious time to find and put on a light gray tank top and a blue, short sleeve, tie-front shrug, which made her boobs look bigger that they already were.

She grabbed her bagpack and left the house, literaly running to the bus stop which was, luckily for her, just two blocks away; when she was turning the corner, however, Regina could see how her bus was driving away without her. She tried to cry, but she knew they wouldn't listen. Desperately, she raised her hand and the back of the bus lift from the ground, the back wheels rolling in mid air. Regina run to the door where a very confused bus driver opened the door for her to get in.

"Sky High?" the bus driver asked.

"Yeah," Regina answered, letting the back of the bus hit the floor and stepping in.

"I thought so."

The bus drove away and Regina went to the back where she could see familiar faces.

"Hi guys!" she greeted five of the senior members of the football team.

"Hey, Reggie, was that you?" Richard said pointing his head to back.

"Yeah, I overslept... didn't wanna miss the bus," Regina tried to explain while she sat in a seat all by herself. She noticed a group of three girls staring at her, who up until then had apparently been the guys centre of attention. "Hi! I'm Regina," she said stretching her hand to shake.

"We know," said one of them, particularly pretty, blond with blue eyes who looked up and down at her, smiling at her lack of make up and her severe dutch braid.

Then the girls turned their backs on Regina, who really couldn't care any less; she opened her bag-pack and took out her make up case, put some mascara on to pop her eyes, redish lipstick so her lips wouldn't seem so pale and lipgloss so they would shine as well, all in the middle of the bus's motion and without missing once. If she had learnt something after all the years she travelled throughout the country, it was that.

Of course, even though Boom had mentioned that the bus would take her to the school flying, she still startled when the bus drove off the half done highway and into the open sky, causing the girls to laugh at her meanly. Of course, the voyage ended rather quickly –they arrived at school only ten minutes later- but that didn't mean Regina was free of the girls, no; after they pushed her while getting off the bus, which nearly made her trip, they followed her into the school, talking nastily about her saying things like "who does she think she is?" and "why don't she go back her mommy and leave us be?" but pretending they didn't see her whenever Regina turned to strike them with infuriated eyes; she also noticed people on the halls staring at her and whisper, some even pointed at her with no sense of discretion. The three girls only stopped following her when she reached the principal's office to pick up her schedule and a map of the school, and only then Regina could relax and find her way to her first class.

_Power Theory, here I come_, she thought as she walked in the half full classroom right before the bell rang and sat on a seat in the middle of the classroom. She hadn't been there for more than two seconds when a brown haired girl came to her and stared at her furiously.

"That's my seat," she stated.

"What's your name?" Regina asked staring back at the girl's green eyes.

"Marianne," she answered without thinking.

"Well, Marianne, I got here first, so why don't you and seat somewhere else?" Regina commanded kindly.

"Okay," Marianne asked and sat by the window.

Smiling, Regina looked how Marianne slowly came out of her groggy state and realized she wasn't sitting in her seat. She looked at Regina, who smirked and quickly focused her attention in Mr. Crowly, one of the teachers who had tutored her during summer, who had just went inside the classroom and had started seconds ago to take attendance.

"Arnolds?" the man in the caqui suit asked.

"Here."

"Barns?"

"Here."

"Bennet?"

"Over here."

"Boomowski?"

Regina raised her hand, smiled at the teacher and said "Here".

He went on like that for a while, Regina practically paying no attention to the man, until he called for a name she was familiar with.

"Peace?"

"Here," Warren said from the back and Regina turned to confirm she hadn't mistaken his voice. He smirked at her and arched his left eyebrow; as if she could read his mind, she knew that meant _Took you long to see me_. She turned back to the front, where the teacher was writing his name –Mr. Steven Crowly- on the blackboard.

"Hello everybody, most of you already know who I am but we have a new student this year and it's only fair if I introduce to her as she's going to introduce to us," Mr. Crowly said smiling kindly. Apparently he had forgotten Regina had already met him.

_W__ait, what did he just said? I am not speaking up for the entire class!_

"Miss Boomowski? Would you mind to stand up?" _Yes!_

Regina stood up, the eyes of the class following her every move; she smiled shakily showing her white teeth.

"Hi, I'm Reggie..." not knowing what to say and feeling uncomfortable for being stared at so sharply by some of the students she looked at Mr Crowly for help.

"Won't you tell the class about your powers, dear?" he came to aid.

"Well, I'm telekinetic and I can..." Regina glanced at Marianne, "... make people do stuff."

"Stuff like what?" one of the guys, who wasn't on the football team because Regina would've recognized him, asked in a suspicious kind of way.

"Pretty much everything," she nodded. "I have my limitations, though."

Some shared knowing looks as if they knew something she didn't and she had just gave them more reason to support their believe; others, like Warren and two members of the football team didn't seam to notice the rest of the class' strange behaviour. Not caring at all, but knowing that having the ability to persuade someone into doing something against their will pretty much made her look like a walking VILLAIN neon sign, Regina disregarded the whole deal. The lesson started shortly after, with Mr Crowly telling them about how the perception about super-beings had changed since the ancient times and which explanation every culture gave to the presence of powers on certain individuals until science would start to study the super-gene factor. It was entertaining enough to distract Regina from the people glancing at her with both anger and fear; when the bell rang to indicate the ending of the period, Regina felt happy as she jumped off her seat and left the classroom and the angry people behind.

"Regina," Warren appeared on her side.

"Hi, Sparky," she smiled. "Or should I say Flame Emb..."

"Don't," he warned and Regina laughed, making him quiver. "Unless you want me to start to Roxanne at you," he said, merely a try to get back on his feet.

"Wait! You can help me with something!" she thought suddenly. "I normally never question my judgement of the people around me, but today is not a normal day so maybe I'm wrong. Did you notice anybody looking at me strangely during class?"

"Are you kidding? I thought someone would pull out a crucifx and cry _back, demon, back!_ at you by the end of the class," he said.

"I knew I wasn't wrong!" Regina celebrated and glared at her arching his left eyebrow. "What? I figured they'd get to hate me eventually, it just happened faster than I thought it would. It really save us a lot of time if you think about it," she racionalized.

"Why were you so sure they'd hate you?"

"I'm not a likable person, and considering my parent's history regarding the super-kind I was fully aware something like this would happen," Regina explained as they turned the corner.

"So you don't care that a big part of the school's population doesn't like you?" he asked just to be sure.

"Not really."

"Don't you wanna have friends?"

Taken aback, Regina looked up at the guy who stood nearly two heads taller than her.

"Of course I want friends. I just... know it's gonna be tough for me. I'm not used to it," she replied quietly and then stared down the floor.

They stopped in front of the Math classroom into which may people was entering.

"Thanks for walking me, by the way," Regina smiled.

"I wasn't walking you; this is my class," he clarified.

"Oh," Regina muttered awkwardly. "Then we'd better get in."

* * *

Lunch time was a challenge for Regina; where should she sit? Some of the guys in the football team had told her she had place with them if she wanted, but the mean girls from the bus where also sitting with them and after a whole morning of glares she really didn't feel like being anywhere near them. There was no empty table and she was not sitting with her uncle and the rest of the teachers; that was out of the question.

She walked to where Boom was sitting anyway, just to say hi; he was next to Mr. Medulla who was laughing like any mad scientist would at a joke someone had told. Regina approached to the teachers, feeling, like she had the whole morning, the eyes of hundreds of people trying to pierce their way through Regina's head. She just hoped none of them had laser vision.

"Hi Boom!" she greeted and smiled to the rest of the teachers.

"Hey there, kiddo! How's your day going? Made any friend already?" he asked chuckling.

Regina genuinely laughed at his joke.

"Me... a friend...? That's hilarious!"

"I know!" Boom laughed with her; he knew damn well about Regina's way around doing friends. The teachers in the table stared at the odd dynamic between uncle and niece.

"I gotta go; I gotta find somewhere to sit. Bye Boom," Regina left, still smilling and making her tray float in front of her as she walked so she could dry the tears of laughter from her gray eyes.

Doing so, she noticed Warren and Flag Boy (she knew he had told her his name, but after fainting she'd forgotten it) sitting along with a redhead girl. Tired of walking round the cafeteria, Regina headed to their table.

"Hi," she placed her tray and sat in front of the two guys and the girl. "You don't mind, do you Sparky?" she smiled broadly.

"Reggie?" the red head gril asked. Regina looked at her and was pleased to find Layla, the girl she had met in the hair salon.

"Oh my God, Layla! Is this freaky or what?" Regina smiled.

"I know! So you're the infamous Regina," she said glancing at Flag Boy.

"Infamous? Why infamous? What did you tell them, Sparky?" she inquired dryly remembering all too well the insults he'd called her last time they'd met.

Warren raised both his eyebrows and his hands, in a _don't look at me, I got nothing to do_ kind of way.

"There's been certain rumors going on around you since this morning," Flag Boy started.

"She doesn't want to know, Will," Warren stated.

_Will! That's Flag Boy's name!_

"How'd you know?" Will asked.

"Cuz I asked her."

"Yeah, I don't really care," Regina stated taking a sip of soda.

"You sure?" Layla asked disbeliever. "If people were saying something about me I would like to know."

"Well, what thery're sayin' it's probably true and even if it's not I'm not gonna stand on top of the table and claim my innocence. So I might as well remain oblivious," Regina grinned as two boys and one girl approached to the table and sat next to her.

The tallest of the three, a bleached boy with too much fluorescent clothes covering his skiny body, stared at her with fear and back at the girl next to him, a gothic-like, petite brunette wearing black and purple; the other boy, who she remembered to have seen before on the halls and who had attracted her attention with his orange button up shirt, bright green bow tie and his equally green pants._ If you're gonna have lunch with them, please make an effort and be nice, damn it._

"Hi, I'm Reggie," she smiled and held her hand to shake.

The purple girl gave her an up and down look, slightly interested and the guy with the bow tie opened his mouth in surprise.

"I knew it!" highlight boy exclaimed. "Is it true?" he asked interested to the verge of being annoying.

"Shhh! She doesn't want to know!" Layla warned the the newcomers.

"You don't know? How can you not know?" purple girl inquired.

"I don't really care..."

"Hmm," purple girl considered. After deliberating, she shook Regina's hand. "I'm Magenta."

"Zach," highlight said. "And if you don't care, that's cool, man, I'm sure they're all wrong..." Magenta elbowed him to prevent him of finishing the sentence.

"Which part of don't wanna know don't you get?"

"I'm Ethan, by the way, and if you ever need tutoring I'm your guy. I'm with Zack, I got your back," Ethan stated.

"Whoa, it must be some nasty rumor going on," Regina took a bite of the fish cutlets she had brought from home. The others stared at her uncomfortably looking. "But I still don't want to know."

"Okay, lets change the subject," Layla suggested cheerfully looking at Will for support.

"You're a Senior, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, you?"

"Juniors, except for Warren who's in your class," he replied.

The few minutes following that statement were too silent for Regina's like; the rumor about her was hanging over them and it seamed like they didn't want to bring up any topic that could lead Regina to know what people were saying. Having no more food to eat and pretend she enjoyed the silence, Regina decided she was going to make them talk at any cost; she just had to find a topic they'd find neutral.

"I take it you know my uncle..." she tried.

"Yeah," Ethan said. Regina could see how they all exchanged warning looks. "He's a... fine teacher."

Something that sounded like tried to be hidden snort came from Magenta's side of the table and Warren, his eyebrows arched in amusement, half smirked.

_Okay, no talking about Boom... Wait! What the hell is their problem with Boom?!_

"I don't buy that. What's your problem with Boom?" she angrily verbalized her thoughts.

"Nothing! He's just..." Layla tried.

"An ass. Nobody really likes him. Not the students anyway..." Magenta finished Layla's sentence, to much displease of the others.

"The team likes him!" Regina stated, willing to go to the end of the world and back in order to defend her uncle.

"The team fears him," Will clarified without thinking and Layla elbowed him.

"Shut it, Flag Boy," she said dryly. "They respect him."

"If they do, they must be the only ones..." Magenta whispered all too loudly.

So she had decided to play? Well, she was up for a rude awakening, Regina thought; two could play that game.

Regina glared at Magenta and asked rather seriously, "So we're getting bitchy, aren't we Girly?"

"You did not just called me _Girly_..."

Faking innocence, both her brows rose in unison, perfectly matching Warren's habit "Why, I'm sorry; _wench_ was the first word that came to my mind but I thought you might find that offensive," Regina went on.

"You...!" Magenta growled, standing up angrily and not realizing she had done so.

"Me...? What? Care to finish that thought?" she laughed derogatorily. "Jeez, can't take a joke, can you? Are you _that_ insecure?"

"I'll make you eat those words!"

"Are you, now? Was it something I said?"

Magenta' s hands tensed in frustration, as if she'd like to tighten them around Regina's throat. She choked, sputtered, opened his mouth to say something but snapped it closed again all too many times as the anger wouldn't let her put two words together.

"At least I don't have the whole school thinking I'm an evil bitch," Magenta finally managed to say, meanly by all means.

"I object to the evil part."

"So you're admitting you're a bitch" Magenta asked, feeling triumphant.

"Under certain circunstances, yes. However, I wasn't the one who knowingly insulted a member of the other's family," She retorted mildly, and then "If I'm the bitch, was does that, dear girl, make you?"

Awkward silence followed her statement. Grinning, Regina knew the battle was almost won.

"Okay, so I'm gonna go now; got to calm down Boom who's most likely coming over to see why you're yelling at me."

"Like you didn't provoke me...!"

"'Course I did!" Regina laughed. "But while you're standing there, drawing the attention of the entire cafeteria, I'm sitting calmly and taking all your anger like a lady. How'd you think Boom will react after your little dislike outburst at his only and beloved niece?" Regina went on smiling, quiet enough only those on the table heard her. Magenta sat down, ire trembling, her eyes fixated on Regina as she stood up –the tray floating in front of her-. "Now, next time you want to talk what you know shit about, think twice, cuz I can be much worse that this and public humiliation was being nice from me. One more word about my uncle, and you'll be sorry. And that goes for the rest of you, too. Bye Layla!"

And she walked away, the tray floating behind her along her bagpack, while being followed by the sight of the six friends, one enfuriated, one confused and shaking her hand good-bye, three too impressed to say a word, and the last grinning broadly, his brow risen higher than it had before.

**Is it getting better? what d'you think? please review!**


	8. A very deep hole to crawl out of

Chapter eight: A very deep hole to crawl out of

_Oh, life is bigger  
It's bigger than you  
And you are not me  
The lengths that I will go to  
The distance in your eyes  
Oh no,__ I've said too much  
I set it up  
That's me in the corner  
That's me in the spotlight, I'm  
Losing my religion  
Trying to keep up with you  
And I don't know if I can do it  
Oh no, I've said too much  
I haven't said enough  
I thought that I heard you laughing  
I thought that I heard you sing  
I think I thought I saw you try_

Regina was currently in the Mad Science Lab, organizing the hologram lasers the Sophomores would be working on that day. Mr. Medulla had kindly asked her to be his teaching assistant after class the day before; Regina, who had always had a genuine interest in science and, she had to admit, was quite good at it, joyfully obliged his offer and quickly took her responsabilities. Mr. Medulla had asked her to prepare everything necessary for his first class in the morning, for he'd be getting to school a bit late –he had an appointment with his accountant or something like that. She had to be at school earlier for that same reason so she herself wouldn't be late for her first class of the day, so she had asked Boom to carry her –just as she had seen Will carry Warren when they had chased after her- up to Sky High when he went flying with his jet-pack over there.

There weren't many students when she first got there and headed to the Lab, so she'd felt free to do as she liked, and that was the very reason why she was singing up to her lungs at that early hour. She hadn't exactly realized, however, what she was doing. It was her habit –one she found quite soothing- to sing whenever she was doing something repetitive, such as cooking, cleaning, bathing or, in this case, organizing hologram lasers. It also gave her the chance to think about stuff she was worried about, or at least a bit concerned; that morning, she was pondering over the event that had taken place in the cafeteria the day before.

When she was a child she liked to believe she was a respectful, obedient, even docile, daughter, and she was; she never once raised her voice or dared to question her parents' will or her nanny's requests. Of course, by the time she might have started to show some temper, her nanny had been fired and her mother had already left her in a orphanage, when she became no longer docile or obedient; Regina was fully aware that from the moment she'd set a foot in Saint George's Orphan Home she had become quiet and selfish to the other children. Even when she was living with foster families she barely talked and did as she pleased, not once acknowledgedthe authority of those in "charge" of her. When she was thirteen she decided to run away, for she had gotten powers and, fearing they'd sent her to the heroes –who her mother had managed to make Regina believe were evil and they would hurt her- and her personality changed yet one more time. Quiet was not the word she'd use –loner, more likely. Loner and judgemental toward everyone who might come across; she had also become quite manipulative into getting what she wanted, pretty practical, coming up with quick solutions in all referring to surviving on the streets –though she never really lived in the street, she had plenty of money to pay for a motel room for every night-. She also thought of herself as a pesimist, always expecting the worst of a situationg and acting in order to prevent it and indiferent to those around her whenever she didn't feel she could use them for her purposes.

It all had changed one more time when she settled for Maxville, Boom and, now, Sky High. Being like she was now surrounded by people and actually interacting with them Regina realized she had a temper, easily getting angry about certain things, but quite patient about others; another surprising thing was the fact that she was bossy –Mrs. McFlawly could attest to that first hand-, lippy –if she didn't agree to something she'd surely talk back, unless she felt she could accomplish something by remaining silent, which was exactly how she'd got her credit card and her new cell phone- and she had a sense of humor, something she'd spent a lifetime to discover and found it amazing. Of course, few people truly understood her sarcastic, even cynical side, Boom being one of them.

But the day before she had learned a whole new deal about her, Purple Girl being both responsible for and directed at. She could frustrate people until they were lying on the floor, curled up into fetal form, begging her to stop. Well, not exactly that, but she had to admit Purple Girl wasn't pleased at all, and she had been humiliated and she had tried her best to stay away from Boom the day before, so Regina must have given her a strong impression. Not that it was that hard to get to Purple Girl's nerves; she was so touchy!

Smirking at the memory, while still singing, Regina thought it wasn't all that bad, anyway, being the way she was now...

_But that was just a dream_

_That was just a dream_

_Just a dream, just a dream_

_Dream..._

"What's up, Dockside Doxy?"

Startled, Regina jumped –making the box of hologram lasers she had in her hands fall to the floor in the process– and then turned around to see who had just interrupted her, scared her and made her organized lasers fall to the floor, making the work of one morning practically nonexistent.

Standing under the threshold, leaning cooly against the door frame, both arms and legs crossed Warren Peace had been glaring at her, his eyes narrow, for God only knew how long.

"You don't do that to people!" Regina said angrily.

Like her, not bothering in hellos or how d'you dos, he greeted "Since when you know what people do?"

"I don't," she leaned down as majestically as she could to put back in the box all the dropped lasers. "Just don't do it to me. And don't call me Dockside Doxy!" she went on, quite loudly, and pointing him with her forefinger.

"Why not? Your reaction is so entertaining," he admited, his voice full with humor. "You should see your face."

"I'm afraid that is physically impossible."

"Then I'll just have to bring a camera along next time."

"If there's a next time you'll have to be dragged to your house," Regina threatened, knowing for a fact that was threat she wouldn't be able to carry on.

"Who's dragging me?" he followed her thought, looked at her up and down, his left eyebrow arched in amusement by her retort. "You? Cuz I gotta tell you, you might as well be the one who ends up being dragged, and I'll make sure to have the honor; though Magenta is first on line."

So there was a reason why he was acting so umpleasant. Of course, Regina should've figured it out right away; after all, Purple Girl was a friend of his, wasn't she?

"She had it coming," she stated firmly, placing the the box on the worktable and turning her back to Warren, who hadn't moved one inch from his place. "She shouldn't've insulted Boom like that."

"I hate to break it out to you," he surely didn't. "But there's a lot of people who don't like Coach Boomer. They may not all say it to your face, but some might; and they all say it on your back, and his too. Don't you think he knows by know? Hell, he enjoys it and he treats students like crap on purpose to get a laugh."

"Whatever, they can say all they want, but if they say it to me or if I happen to overhear, there will be consequences," she declared, turning around and meeting his glare.

He nodded, as if he didn't doubt that for a second. "Sure there will; it's only right."

"Why are you agreeing to me?" she asked, suddenly confused.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"One of your friends is pretty close to hate me and things won't change next time I cross her, if that was what you were thinking."

"I don't really care, I can agree with whomever I like. My friends got nothing to do with it."

The bell rang the very moment he said so, bringing Regina back to the task she was to finish immediately. She put all three boxes of hologram laser over Mr. Medulla's desk and headed to the door, were Warren was still standing. He didn't seem to care to be in the middle of the way. In fact, it would seem he was daring her to say something about it.

"Will you _please_?"

Smirking, as if he'd just won a battle Regina was totally unaware of, he stepped back, turned around and walked away from her down the hallway.

* * *

She would soon learn, however, that Warren and her shared the next class, Hero Ethics. The classroom was pretty much full by the time she got there, the only remaining seats both next to and ahead of the still smirking pyro. She chose the one ahead, in the belief that she could just ignore him if he was kept out of her sight. At the moment she sat, that belief quickly was proven wrong, for she was well aware of him with all her senses.

"Ethics is a very important matter for Heroes. We constantly wonder whether what we're doing is right or not and when does helping the other crosses the line and becomes personal gain," Mr. Phillips introduced. "During this school year we'll be studying several cases of Superheroes and Villains in which ethics had been compromised, or at least there had been some uncertainty about it. All true, of course, and I expect of you to debate between each other, 'cause, you see, ethics is very large and never the same for everybody. What's good and right for me might not be exactly what's good and right for you. And the same goes with priorities. For instance..."

He pressed his hand against the blackboard and words appeared: the President, pregnant woman, fellow superhero.

"Lets imagine you find yourself in the situation where you have to chose only one of these people and save him or her. How would you choose?" he looked at the class, expecting they to speak up and give their opinion.

Surprisingly to Regina, Warren spoke first.

"The pregnant woman."

"What if the fellow hero was your brother or your best friend or maybe a pregnant superhero? Would that still remain your choise?" he shot.

"I save the citizen. If the hero also happens to be a pregnant woman then she shouldn't have been there in the first place," he shot back. Some nodded in agreement.

"What if she was abducted from her house, where she was resting out of danger as you so kindly pointed out? Would that make any difference?" this time Warren, nor anybody for that matter, didn't dare to say something or look anything but puzzled. "You see, you will have to face dilemmas like this, and it'll always be different and there'll always be many things to take into consideration and you'll always ask yourselves _what should I do? _The good thing I have to offer is that you get to learn from the mistakes of those who stood in this very dilemma before you, and this, my friends, is what you're here for," another pressing of the hand in the blackboard followed that statement, which erased the previous words, yet others appearing.

THE SOUL COLLECTOR CASE.

* * *

"Hey Reggie, wait up," someone said on her back.

Regina stopped walking down the hall and turned to see who had called for her. She immediately discarded Warren, who she had never once heard him caller her by that name and went mostly by Regina or any derivation of the word _whore_. It couldn't Boom either, his voice was unmistakable and he'd never _say_ something he just _boomed _it out. It was no female, so Layla and Purple Girl were also out of the question, and that pretty much narrowed it down to the whole football team who knew her name and was actually talking to her. She processed all of this before she'd turned around and she found her assumptions right, for the one calling for her was no one less than Colin Culpepper, the big, blond, blue eyed quarterback. Quickly recalling the month she had spent with the football team during summer, flashbacks of him smiling to her and catching him staring for too long, she smiled back, blushing just a bit.

"Hi Colin," she managed to utter as normaly as she could, an attempt to keep any kind of stuter out of her voice.

"Hi. Listen, you know my friend Kyle?" she nodded, remembering the funny fellow. "Well, last year we were undefeatedby the last save the citizen and we should be the first to choose today, but Kyle was trying to annoy Mike with fast speech and now he can't seem to stop it and he's just as annoyed just as we all are so he's in the infirmary now."

Kyle's power, Regina recalled, was to be able to react in anyway such as moving, thinking, seeing or speeking faster than a normal human, sometimes faster than you could catch with the eye. She had heard him speak way too fast over the summer, something he apparently did as a joke to drive his friends nuts, not only by speaking fast, but, as he was also thinking faster, he would jump through subjects and confuse everyone around.

"He can't stop it?"

"No. And he's growing panic too; he leaps from worrying his tonguemight curl, to the classes he's going to miss to how much he had wanted to save the citizen but now he's gonna miss it to what would happen if his tongue _does_ curl and to ask if you could die by choking with your own tongue, all in one breath, which in his case in less than ten seconds," he added, walking side by side with her, a tone of humor in his voice.

"Why do I have the feeling you're enjoying it?" Regina smirked playfully.

"Cuz it's not the first time's happened and because it's _so _hilarious."

"You're such a good friend!"

"Thank you, I do try," he played along. "Anyway, where I was getting at is that Mike's staying with him so I kinda need a partner for save the citizen and I was thinking maybe you could fill in," He looked down to her and smiled warmly.

Now, Regina had gotten many smiles in her life, especially recently; loving ones from Boom, liking ones from Layla, smirks from Warren, to name a few. But a smile like that she hadn't got until now and that was probably why she'd got so taken aback and took her too long to find an answer for his offering, which altogether made him blush by her constant stare.

"Yeah, sure. You are warned, though. If we loose you'll be the one to blame," she grinned.

* * *

"Culpepper, Grant, you want to be heroes or villains...? Where the heck is Grant?" Boom asked noticing just then that it was his niecethe one standing next to Collin in the middle of the gym wearing the save the citizen suit. She waved a hand at him.

"He got stuck in fast speech, Coach," Colin informed, trying hard to keep the smile out of his features.

"Again? Has he not learned the lesson already?" Boom did smile, more like smirked.

"Apparently not. I figured Miss Boomowski would benefit of saving the citizen for the first time with someone she already knows," if Regina had thought he had blushed while they were walking the hall, she was mistaken. That was a blush, and a very profuse one that is.

She heard the crowd sitting on the bleachers chuckle at how Colin had called her, making him blush even more. Of course, Colin's loyalties were with Boom, his coach, and if he had to call her Miss Boomowski whenever he was a round them, so he would.

"Fine," he nodded. And then "Heroes or Villains?"

"Heroes."

"And who might the Villains be...?"

"Do you want it easy, medium or challenging?" Colin whispered to her ear.

Already excited and unable to wait any more, Regina squeezed "Challenging!"

"We pick Little Larry," he pointed at little fellow among the crowd. "And Megan Hazec," a brunette, tallish, quite pretty girl Regina recognized from her Mad Science class, joined him.

The Villains went to the lockerroom to change into the appropiate suits, leaving time for Regina and Colin to plan a strategy.

"What are their powers?"

"Little Larry turns into this huge rock form and gets really strong and Hazec can copy our powers for a while."

She considered that for a seccond, "I think you might've overdone it; this is way challenging!" she whispered angrily.

"Not for us, it isn't."

Was it the huge grin he had when he said that or was it the hand squeeze he gave her before Little Larry and Hazec entered the arena that made Regina feel so warm and worry-less? She didn't know at the moment and she probably would never know, but right then she was confident, and arrogance was confidence first cousin.

"Let's kick their sorry asses," Regina said out loud, looking directly at their opponents.

The giant digital clock started the countdown and all of the sudden, Little Larry had put his glasses inside his pocket, and turned into a gray rock-like bulk. 7.5 feet tall, he ran toward the heroes, the floor trembling by his very step, and jumped when he was near enough of them. Colin quickly hold on Regina, who felt the world vanish and her inside flutter as he teleported both of them out of Little Larry's way. They reappeared next to a park bench, which Regina sent flying at great speed to Little Larry, hitting him in the middle back; it didn't seam to hurt him much though, just annoy him, but Colin didn't waste a second and teleported himself yet again, this time landing on top of Larry's shoulders, grabbing him by the nose in order to make him fall, preferably not over him.

On the mean time, Regina was fighting her own battle. Hazec might seam like an easy going girl, but she certainly was tiger on the field; mimicking Regina's telekinesis, she lifted both her arms to sent her flying against the transparent plastic wall surroinding the battle field. She was copying the master, of course, for Regina stabilized herself in mid air before she hit the wall and gracefully landed, a smirk on her face, only to find herself trapped under the embrace of two rocky arms. Hazec hadn't turned into a whole rock like Larry, but only her arms and a part of her chest to support Regina's weight and make sure she wouldn't break the tight hold. Even before she could order her captor to let go, they were up in one of the iron rafter supporting the gym's roof. This time, Hazec did the smirking and teleported herself back in the field, where she joined Larry against Collin.

Panic rising, Regina looked down and almost screamed. She was above the freaking destroying machine menacing to tear apart the fake citizen! She was going to kill Hazec when she got down there, if she got down. She breathed in and out several times, thinking of a way to get out of that oh-so-tricky situation; Colin was obviously busy and she didn't want him to loose his undefeated status for her newly found height phobia, so she wasn't going to scream for his help. Until she got the citizen, that is; if the citizen was no longer in danger, the game would be over and Colin could come pick her up.

Regina moved a few inches on her left so she could have a good look at the rope holding the male puppet and once her eyes fixated on it, the puppet steadily flew toward her; smiling she caught it, but she wasn't counting on gravity and as soon as she stopped the telekinetic charm that carried the puppet, it fell down in all its might, and for a fake citizen it sure as hell weighted a lot. Regina lost balance and let go of it, but she still had to cling for dear life to the rafter with both legs and arms. While in V-tach, she prevented her body to shiver with all the fear she was feeling and clung tighter to the rafter, craving for a more secure position.

As if it were a joke played on her, she rolled on the rafter and now, instead of looking down to the floor like she had up until then, her back was facing the destroying machine and her eyes would be staring at the roof, if only she hadn't closed them rapidly when she thought she was falling. She wasn't the only one who thought that; she heard the crowd gasp at once and Boom booming at Hazec for cheating.

One more sigh and the puppet was once again next to her and she grabbed it now without letting go the telekinetic charm holding it; she had to loose one arm to do it and, yet again nearly falling to the floor to a sure death, she let got of the other arm as well to untiethe citizen. Her legs were her only link to the rafter and were quite numb by now and she was sure they wouldn't hold her long. The puppet was safe in her gasp in less than ten seconds and when some of the pressure she was feeling was released, her legs gave up and she fell.

She thought she was going to hit the machine and meet Doom. She was sure. She even had time to inwardly cry _OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD! _all the way down. But she never got there; instead, when she opened her eyes she found herself being held by Colin and safely in the floor. He must have caught her in mid air and teleported both to the field. Her eyes wide open, her heart pounding, tightly squeezing the citizen and utterly freaked out, Regina felt herself faint. Luckily, Colin still hadn't let her go.

"Are you Ok?" he asked softly, his golden eyebrows together in concern.

Regina didn't answer. She couldn't; she had forgotten how to speak.

"OUT OF MY WAY!" Boom finally got to Regina, took her away from Colin with no hesitation and shook her to make her react. "Say something!"

She gasped; she could feel the eyes of everybody on her. She started trembling uncontrollably.

"I need a paper bag," she uttered. And then she completely lost it. "I need a paper bag! Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God, oh, God..."

"She can borrow mine," one of the students came near Boom and handed a brand new brown paper bag. Boom took it immediatelly; Collin, on the other hand, stared at the guy confused and amazed he was carrying a paper bag. "I get panic attacks frequently," he shrugged.

Regina heard none of this for she was too busy breathing inside the paper bag and holding tightly to the puppet. Boom had tried to gently take it away from her, but found it impossible. She was too traumatized. She did, however, let him lead her to a seat on the bleachers, where she sat quietly for the next forty minutes.

"You're the one to blame!" she shouted at Colin in front of his friends.

She had been panicking for over an hour over her near death experience, thanking God for being alive, realising that had she died she would have left so many things unresolved, hence putting her life in perspective, making a mental list of of the things she wanted to do before she died, and another list of all the things she ought to do to avoid a silly accidental death like the one that almost caught up with her. Once the panic had left her a whole new feeling took a hold on Regina: rage. And that's why she was infuriated, standing in front of Colin and some members of the football team, at their table, drawing the attention of everyone within hearing radium.

"Ok," he tried to soothe her. "What for?"

"I told you if anything went wrong you'd be the one to blame, and since something went really wrong at save the citizen, I'm putting the blame in the right shoulders!"

"I don't want to upset you or anything," he said mildly, her mental health all he cared. "I didn't put you on top of that rafter, remember? I saved you from falling."

"You're right," she said, her voice low. She sat in the empty seat, under the stare of the guys. "I'm just... I haven't quite yet... I need..."

"Paper bag?" Kyle kindly handed one to her.

"Thank you!" she felt like crying; her emotions were so on the edge since the incident. She went on breathing inside the bag.

"You'll get there, don't worry," Mike, sitting next to her, put a hand on her shoulder and smiled a charming smile.

Regina nodded. She was feeling better now. But if it wasn't Colin's fault...?

"Where's that power stealing bitch?" she shoved the paper bag inside her pocket and strode off the table, frantically looking for Megan Hazec.

Not an easy task if you didn't know anything of the girl or who her friends were; she didn't want to walk around the cafeteria asking for her: that way, she'd release some of her anger and she wanted to had it fall over Hazec with all it's might. She looked around her and found Colin, Kyle and Mike standing next to her, whether to restrain her from physically attacking Hazec or to help her she didn't care. As long as they were there, she'd request their services.

"Kyle, would you mind?" she asked, unnexpectedly calm.

"No problem," and he speed away, his body only a red and white blur to their eyes. In less than half a minute he was back, ready to inform his findings. "She'snotinthecafeteria,IlookedallovertheschoolandIfoundherinthehalljustoutsidetheMathsclassroom.Ilockedherinthejanitor'sclosetsoshewouldn'tgoaway.Youwantmetospeedyouoverthere?"

"Kyle, watch you're tongue!" Mike said.

"Sorry, you guys got anything I said?" speaking slowly –normaly, actually- seamed to take a lot of concentration from him.

"Yeah, I got most. Thanks Kyle," Regina smiled. "You mind if I take your paper bag?"

"Not at all, Reggie; I got it for you."

"Whoa," Regina felt her eyes moist, touched by his small, yet thoughtful detail. She pulled herself together, however, appreciating that the guys would look away as if they hadn't realised she was on the verge of crying. Se cleared her throat, "I'd better go find her."

"We're going with you," Colin assured.

"Yeah, we don't want this to get too bloody," Mike added as they walked her out of the cafeteria.

"Like she could actually hurt _me_."

"It's not you we're worried about."

After Colin's mysterious comment, no one said a word. Did they really thought she was going to engage in a fight with Megan Hazec? Regina knew she'd never do that, unless in Save the Citizen, and even then she wouldn't hurt her on anybody else badly or knowingly. But on the edgy state of mind she was at the moment... she could only hope she didn't find out that her temper also included physical violence.

The pounding on the janitor's closet's door was enough for Regina to know where Megan Hazec was locked in; she didn't even looked at Kyle for confirmation. She just slammed it open to find the very indignant brunette, her hazel eyes throwing dagers at her captors.

"You did this?" she asked, more like demanded an answer. "What the hell d'you think you're playing at?"

Regina yanked her out of the closet and dragged her to the girls toilet, where she was sure Colin and the others wouln't follow them. She strode inside, with very little consideration for Hazec, and shut the door closed, locking it just to make sure they wouldn't be interrupted.

Hazec was already out of Regina's grip and had quickly backed away, not with fear, but more like precaution; leaning on the close door, Regina nodded and all the toilet door opened at once, revealing no one to be there.

"Okay, I'm ready. Say what you've got to say," Hazec started, crossing her arms.

"I nearly died because of you."

"I'm sorry; I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to walk around that rafter where you could easily fall over. I assumed you'd stay put until the game was finished," regardless she had apologized and justify her actions in the same sentence, Regina caught an actual hint of regret on her voice.

"Has it work for you before? Leaving people up there, I mean," she asked genuinely interested.

"Every time. You're the only one who didn't give up... so far."

"I don't think anybody would be following a leaf of my book in that matter, so don't worry, your strategy will remain useful," Regina went on mildly with a disconcerting smile.

"I can only hope so," she laughed, showing a prettier side of her. "I'm really sorry, I wouldn't be here talking with you if I didn't have a very deep hole to crawl out of."

Regina chuckled, and then nodded looking down, considering whether to accept her apology or continue to resent the girl.

"I gotta say, I thought there would be some yelling and smashing or your own, even a little crying from me," Hazec admited, walking a few steps closer. "You know, after what happened with that sidekick yesterday."

"Purple Girl is a sidekick?" Regina burst out with laughter. "I'm so gonna rub it in to her now. What's her power?"

"I think she shape-shifts to a Guinea Pig."

"Priceless. Of course, if you were so eager for a verbal confrontation, I think I can manage a little shouting."

"You can? Don't you need an incentive?" Hazec played along.

"Not really. It's an on and off thing."

"Maybe later. You had lunch yet?"

"I was about to when I decided I wanted to kick your ass."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't like having my ass kicked with an empty stomach," Regina opened the door and let Megan go out first.

"Then I guess we'll have to eat first. Argh, such a waste of time!" Regina followed.

She only spared one look for the guys, who were waiting no so patiently on the hallway, to make them know everything was fine. She and Megan walked along, talking and joking, heading to the cafeteria.

"What the hell just happened?" Mike inquired bluntly.

* * *

**Hey I'm back! I intended to update on Saturday, but I got trouble with my server so... anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I must say particularly like this one, maybe because Reggie's panic attack and the whole rafter deal... **

**so you've me my other OCs, don't worry, you'll get a full description of them on next chapter and Warren will be more incolved too.**

**you know how the summary says something about heroes losing their powers? well, that's the underlying plot here people, so you gotta pay a lot of attention in the next chapters and maybe you'll have to read the previous again. for instance, in this chapter I mentioned the Soul Collector, but you'll find out about him on next chapter and you remember Diamond Dame? Well, if you don't, read again, cuz she'd gonna be an important part of this fic.**

**anyway, that's it for today. next chapter will be up in about two weeks and for those who can't wait for some Reggie/Warren romance... mmmwwwaahahaha you'll have to read and see! (that was my evil laugh, did you like it?)**


	9. Just drop dead and do me a favor!

Chapter nine: Just drop dead and do me a favor!

She was discussing villain ethics with Warren Peace, a.k.a Flame Ember, a.k.a Hothead McSparky.

She was discussing villain ethics with Warren Peace, a.k.a Flame Ember, a.k.a Hothead McSparky, on her living room, completely alone in the house.

She was discussing villain ethics with Warren Peace, a.k.a Flame Ember, a.k.a Hothead McSparky, on her living room, completely alone in the house, and she was cursing every two minutes that freaking situation which she'd never seen coming.

Three weeks had past since school started, three great weeks she must admit. She was doing great in her classes; on Mondays she'd take Power theory, Maths and Mad Science; it was a good day for her, Power theory was entertaining enough to keep her awake, Maths was hard, but not challenging, and Mad Science, well, she was mad about it. Tuesdays weren't bad either, Hero Ethics always gave her a headache, but the topics they approached were quite interesting, though often confusing. Save the Citizen was purely fun and she even managed to know many people through it and not once did she acted badly toward them; that and the fact that Boom hadn't shown any special treatment toward her after the falling scare helped to ease the gossip about her. Now she hardly saw people talking about her or being rude, save for the mean girls from the bus on her first day who continued their unladylike behaviour toward Regina. The darkening of Tuesdays was easily accomplished by English-Comic Comprehension; she hated it, the teacher and whatever related to it. She found it worthless and a complete waste of time. Besides, Mrs. Newly, the chubby, easy going teacher that had tutored her during the summer had just retired and the new teacher, Miss Clark was nothing but a shrewish woman; she'd even dared to criticize Regina's handwriting, saying a twelve year old child could write better than her. For the sake of school peace, Regina "forgot" to mention this to Boom.

The only good thing she could say about Wednesday was that she had Mad Science at the end of the day. As if starting with History of Mankind and Superkind wasn't bad enough –all they did was read the text book, answer questions and write essays- she also had to put up with Hero Health, which deep down she was sure was not only useful but necesary as well, if only the teacher, Miss Pogly wouldn't made them split in two groups, one supposed to play dead, injured, in labour and God only knew what she had planned for the rest of the year while the other group tended to them. She and Megan agreed the whole thing was plain ridiculus. Now, Thursday was well enough –she had Maths again and then Sociology, which along Hero Ethics was one of the greatest debating classes- until she'd walk in English-Comic Comprehension for the second time in the week. Had she known she'd hate that subject that much she would have begged for a change in her schedule before it was too late.

History of Mankind and Superkind was a slight mot on Fridays, since she'd start the day with Hero Protective Law: Rights and Responsibilities, a significantly important subject for all she cared, with a teacher like Mr. Brown who'd tell them how to cover their asses when and if they broke a law or how to fill a lawsuit when and if they got their rights stamped on. Even though it wasn't a funny matter, he'd still made them laugh and his jokes, however quite cynical at the times, were always worth hilarity. Her day and week ended with Power Development, a class which Boom himself taught. It was similar to Save the Citizen, except Boom would actually tell the students how to best use their powers or improve them according to the case. It was one of her favourite classes, and it had nothing to do with Boom being the one that taught it; it was the only class, aside from Save the Citizen, where she could spend time with all her friends at the same time.

The thought always made her smile. She had friends! She had thought it impossible, or at least really hard to get, but she had been wrong! And she couldn't be happier.

Megan and her had gotten very close, they'd even went shopping and to the movies together. She always surprised her with her sense of humor and friendliness, talking to her as if they'd been friends since ever and not just a couple of weeks.

Megan was an only child and a first generation of supers in her family. Her parents, both civilians, had no powers and no idea how they could have produced a hero, and a powerful one that is; she did't really liked to talk about it but she was quite unlimited and had the upper hand when she was having a fight, able like she was to use several powers at the same time. Regina was sure she felt guilty for borrowing powers, not that she should. She was a ballet dancer, Regina soon learned, and her only wish was to get in Julliard after she finished high-school. She had no expectation to become a Heroine or a Villainess for that matter. She just wanted a normal, ballet full life. The one thing that most people didn't like about Megan was that she was too honest; she just spoke what was in her mind, not knowing when to shut up, even for her own sake. Teachers certainly didn't like it, and it had cost her the friends she had gathered during freshman year: once her frankness stopped being amusing, or was directed to them, they all turned their backs on Megan. The worst part of the whole thing was that she was a very sweet girl after all and she never meant wrong whenever she spoke the truth.

Colin, Kyle and Mike were the best of friends. They'd known each other on kinder garden and ever since they hadn't done anything without the others; they had codes, in-jokes, and Regina suspected they even had their own language; she had caught them a few times talking nonsense, absurd sentences only they could find meaning on. They had no leader, but each had his own place. Mike was the arrogant one, the one who could easily find something in everybody to laugh at and didn't care if you didn't like being laughed at; not many people tell him to quit it, though, probably because if you did, he would laugh even harder and care even less. But once you got past his wall of protection and arrogance, he would be kind and considerate, but only if you promised you'd never tell that publicly; seriously, he stated from the beginning that he'd deny it and make you blow up if you did. After all, that was his power, to channelize energy into any vessel, an object or even a living form, and make it explode. Not that he'd ever done such a thing with a human being, but you sure as hell didn't want to put him under test. Girls followed him everywhere –he was with his sandy brown hair, his bulky thorax and his black eyes a really handsome man- but then again, girls followed the three friends. They were popular, powerful and handsome, what else could they want?

Kyle was the ultimate joker. He'd always find fun in life and would pointed at you so you could laugh as well; he had not one bone of malice in his tall body –he was the tallest, at 6.4 feet - and he made friends with everybody right away. He didn't like confrontation, unless there was fun in it, such as Save the Citizen; he didn't like people arguing and would always try to make them make up and forget the problem. He was always smiling, a dazzling smile that had many girls out of breath. He didn't seam to be able to get angry and even though he and his friends –Mike more frequently- would engage in a fight and end up with a black eye or a bloody nose, he would always have a laugh about it. Regina was sure he only pick on his friends to make them lose their temper for the fun of it. He also could go on and on about a subject for hours if you let him, especially if it was something that bothered you. His shiny blue eyes always smiled and were so giving that with one look at him you could figure out his mood. He sometimes went quiet for a while, not paying attention to what happened around him, sadness fulling his eyes; when Regina asked Colin about it he told her it was because of his parents' divorce.

Colin was like a middle point between his two friends; he liked to joke, but didn't practice it religiously like Kyle, and he was also reserved and kind of arrogant, but not in the exceeding amount Mike carried. Like Mike, he wasn't to make friends right away, but he was kind to everyone regardless what he thought of them. He might not like you, but he won't tell you until he has given you enough chances and you screwed every single one of them. He was also quite smart and, while his friends often struggled with homework, he just sat there watching them, not letting them copy and teasing them nonstop. He was always relaxed and made you feel comfortable and reassured, or at least that's how Regina felt around him. He loved arguing; his temper would rise up easily, but always under control; him and Mike were known to go at each other with murderous intent long and hard, most likely concluding in a fight, not talking to each other for several hours if the row had been bad enough, and then just forget about it. They would say it was just a disagreement, a healthy outlet for tension; humorously, Kyle would say they were bitching at each other.

Regina had a great time with the guys and Megan, always laughing. At Power Development, the five of them ofter paired and do the excersises Boom commanded together, helping each other if they had problems, laughing broadly at Kyle jokes, or more discretely at Mike's remarks of what the rest of the class was doing wrong. They also enjoyed her sarcastic sense of humor and Megan's insensitive honesty and cheerful self were welcome as well when they saw just how wonderfully the girls got along.

But no matter how great her life was, currently she couldn't be feeling any more awkward. She and Warren hadn't so much as said two words to each other in the past weeks, not because they were angry at each other, but they just didn't seam to have anything to talk about, and Regina really didn't like being insulted by him every time she tried to have a conversation. They ended up being paired by Mr. Phillips and they had to present an essay about The Soul Collector, a 1950s villain with the ability to separate a person's soul from the body, it entering in constant state of coma, and controlling the soul which was incredibly powerful because of the energy it contained. He was active for a decade and was pretty much _the _villain at the time, leaving the others out of the spot light. Then one day, the Society of Ultimate Villains turned against him and killed him non too gently. The teacher had given every group a different assignment and a different angle from where to analyze the case. Regina and Warren's was, ironically, the Society's point of view. Whether Mr. Phillips hadn't realised that Warren's father and both Regina's parents had been part of said association –not at the time of the Soul Collector overthrown, but many years later- or he had just done it on purpose, Regina didn't know, but that still left them with the awkward job of thinking as villains and trying to figure out the ethical motives the Society might have had at the time just so they wouldn't fail the class. It had been awkward, and very. Warren would just sit there and won't cooperate, leaving Regina annoyed at his silence and unwillingly doing all the reasoning.

"So the plot's architect was Alien Miscreant, what was on his mind?" Regina asked leaning over the coffee table, closer to Warren who was sitting in front of her, confortably spreaded over the white couch, and fixated her gray eyes on his waiting for a little cooperation from his part.

Up went his left eyebrow. "How should I know?"

"Imagination. Lie if you must, but we have to finish this paper," Regina blurt out exasperated.

He said nothing, just stared at her as if he couldn't be more bored, expecting her to come up with a solution.

"Okay," she said to herself and grabbed her text book, flipping through the pages until she found a photo of Alien Miscreant. "Okay, we're talking about a guy from New Mexico who grew up in a farm and had nothing so much as interesting in his life until he was abducted by aliens in his early twenties. Nobody knew this for a fact but aliens have been proved to exist so it might as well be true. He gained the power to telepath but he still wasn't happy enough so he joined the Society and planed for world domination. The little spotlight he got was quickly taken away from him by the Soul Collector and he plotted his downfall. So far so good?" she tried to have him in the conversation.

Yet his expresion didn't change.

"Okay, so maybe he wanted the spotlight back, right? That would be my first choice," she wrote something down on her notebook. "He was jealous," a snort from Warren made her raise her head and glare at him furiously. "If you feel I'm wrong, please, do enlighten me."

He stared back at her, an amusement look in his eyes. Just when she was sure he wasn't going to say a word, he decided to talk.

"Jealousy had nothing to do with it," he stated. "To be jealous you first need to care about something or someone, and villains only care about themselves."

"My point exactly. He wanted the Soul Collector's attention..."

"I'm afraid you're mistaken."

"I'm afraid you're an idiot."

"A thought shared by many, but besides the point. Lets put it this way, you were what, eight, nine years old whenBabitty Gravity took the White House?" he asked, as if was trying to explain something really simple to a really obtuse person. She nodded, "So you must remember how your parents felt about it. Were they jealous?"

Regina thought hard, really hard, but found not a single memory that would say her parents had been jelous at the time. Of course that didn't mean he was right, and she sure as hell wasn't going to help to build up his already sky high ego.

"They weren't, no villain ever was, cuz is way easier to overthrow a fellow villain than a hero. You know why? Because heroes will always distrust you, whereas villains you can worm up with and get close enough to stab them in the back. Villains love to brag of their accomplishments, especially with their buddies. What happened with the Soul Collector and Alien Miscreant was nothing but a change in command."

By the way he was talking you would say his words were coming out of Gospel. And if he dared to ask a question and answer it in the same breath again, Regina would hit him in the head with the lamp next to him.

"You sound so sure," she said in a sing sang voice. "Did your father tell you all this as a bed time story?"

That was low, even for her, but she didn't take it back. Whatever point she thought she had just scored she had to quickly erase it, thought, for he was smirking and seamed to find amusement in her question.

"Are you talking from first hand experience? I never pictured Rockshiver as the telling bed time stories kind of father, but I guess there's a first for everything. Did your mom stood by his side and add details to the story or did they took different shifts?"

He seamed honest, he sounded honest, and Regina hated him at the second.

"Shut up."

"Not until you say sorry," amusement was far from his tone now, leaving only stiff, cold words.

"I won't and you know it," she stated angrily. "Jerk."

"Slut."

She gasped, as she did every time he started with the nasty name-calling. Regina closed her eyes, counted to thirty and then back until she felt she was calm enough to address to Warren one more time. Her eyes shut, she missed the grin he curved his lips into as he leaned back on the coach. When she finally opened them, she found only an inscrutable expression in front of her.

"Can we... stop it? I really want to finish this damn essay," For the paper's sake, she decided to give in. "So they weren't jealous, they just took their chances and overthrow the Soul Collector. I can work with that."

"No you can't."

Counting to thirty and backwards wasn't going to help this time. "Why the Hell not? You sounded so sure you made me change my mind. What the fuck is your problem now?"

"Even though I know I'm right, a reflection like that is only to be considered by a villain mind, and if we turn in our essay saying that we're going to have Mr. Phillips and the whole school thinking we're villains on the road."

"Oooh, good thinking," she nodded sarcastically. "But you got it wrong there, you're the one with the villain-ly mind. I was up for the safe choice and play the jealous card."

"I do not have a villain-ly mind," he spit out dryly.

"Then how did you came up with such a villain-ly explanation?"

"I'm an omni-linguist," he said as if that would bring Regina to reason in a second.

"That would apply if Alien Miscreant had explained the twisted reasons behind his actions in Aramaic or Phoenician or some other language, but I still don't get..."

"Maybe if you let me finish...!"

"So now your inability to explain yourself is my fault? How convinient!"

"God, you're so narrow mimded it hurts!"

"Why don't you just drop dead and do me a favor?!"

"I can't! I have to finish that fucking paper!"

"Miss Reggie, is everything all right?" Mrs. McFlawly said warily as she entered the living room. She was carrying paper bags fulled with goods, obviously just returning from the market.

Regina gave her curt nod and dismissed her, feeling herself boiling with anger. By the look of Warren –who was livid in his sudden rage, his eyes dangerously glowing, his back stiff and his fist curled- he was as angry as she was and they had started to argue because of a silly matter. What the hell was his problem?

She didn't know, however, how quickly Warren recovered from his anger. It had been there, yes, there was no point in saying he hadn't been mad minutes before; but now it seamed to mild instantly, and that only made him more furious, this time with himself rather than her. And it was all because she looked so damn good furious as she was; she had drawn herself up in the armchair, quite stiffly, during the argument, her delicate jaw higher and higher along with her perky little nose, her gray eyes narrowing and darkening at the second. Infuriated as she was, she had started to breathe harder and harder, having her chest up and down along with those magnificent breast of her –which he had noticed since he got to her house for she was wearing a gray tank-top that, although high-necked and not necessarily the latest fashion, was too tight around her chest and revealed more than it hid.

He mentaly repressed those thoughts, and the urge to go near her and, like many, many other times before but with different girls, play a little seduction and ease the tiring task of finishing the essay. _This is not a girl to take to the back seat, _he thought_, you would regret it at the instant and what's worst she'd probably insist to be something else than one night stand. Of course, that is in the unlikely case that she has any feeling toward me whatsoever other than loath and anger._

She seamed calm now, if not self-controlled, and Warren was sure –because he had spent years perfecting the art of putting an inscrutable face to world at his command- that she had no idea of what had been on his mind moments ago. He could please his body –which he did all too frequently- approach her, get it out of his system and to hell with concecuences. Or he could continue to make her angry, that way wrecking whatever chance he could ever have with her, or he could just leave it alone, ignore that little voice in his head, be reasonable with her and get the hell away from her as fast as he could. Out of sight out of mind, right?

"There are two kinds of omni-linguist," he explained lazily, keeping his eyes safely fixated on hers. "The polyglot exclusive or the ones who also include complete understanding of behaviour."

"So you can understand what a person in feeling or acting upon just by looking what one does?" if he was going to be civilized now, she would gladly play along.

He nodded, "Pretty much. It's not like I go through life deciphering the underlying issues of people; if I did I'd be crazy by now," he added.

"You can do it whenever you like?" he nodded again. "And you don't think that power has anything to do with Mr. Phillips giving _us _this assignment?"

"Few people at school know about it," he shrugged.

"Why? It's an impressive power," she stated effusively.

"People have reasons and the right to maintain their private intentions to themselves. Nobody wants to know the guy next to you might b reading you at the moment and can have you figured out in a matter of minutes. In that way, omni-linguist are far more invasive than telepaths."

"And since you are already kind of like an outsider, to confess your other power would be putting too many cards on the table," she might not be an omni-linguist, but she was already trained in the figuring people out field.

"To go by the way my friends acted after I told them I'd say a public confession would be like tossing the whole deck on the table," he smirked.

Regina laughed, actually finding amusement in a joke by Warren Peace. Two weeks ago she would have said it was imposible; hell, two minutes ago she would have said the exact same thing. But there she was, laughing with him –his smirk had quickly turned into a chuckle when he saw how well she'd responded to his joke. She didn't even care that Mrs. McFlawly was probably listening to the whole conversation and would be telling everything she considered Boom should know about it. On second thought she might have a little chat with Mr. McFlawly before Boom got home...

They wrote the essay based on the safe choice, that the Alien Miscreant was jellous; it was good enought to get them off the hook and, with a little luck, Mr. Phillips wouldn't be giving them the villain's point of view in any future essays. Not that either of them looked forward to be paired up again.

Half an hour later Warren was getting his stuff ready to leave when Regina finally decided to pop the question she'd been dying to ask since she learned he was omni-linguist. "Did you try to figure out why your father did what he did? I mean, the dam crashing..."

"I never wanted to learn his reasons," he answered dryly, his look telling clearly _nor I'll ever want._

Annoyed with herself for putting such and abrupt end to the friendly way they were acting up until then with a subject he clearly wasn't comfortable discussing, she thought of apologizing and was this close to do it. But something stopped her. She couldn't put her finger on what it was, but something definitely disturbing in his bearing prevent her from saying the three little words that would easily make up for her slip. Instead, she said, "Would you try it on my parents?"

He really musn't enjoy the current topic, and if she hadn't realized that much just by his dark looks she would have her reassuring once he opened his mouth. "What would you like to know? Why your father chose to blow himself up along with everyone in a 10 yard radium instead of going to prison or why your mother left you in an orphanage on your own?"

She could be bitchy if she was up for it, but he could be awfully cruel and it didn't even seam to take that much from him to do so.

"Get out," she ordered lowly.

He obliged, not giving her a second look as he left the living room. Regina heard the front door shut closed and once she knew he was out of hearing distance she couldn't help the sobs that took over her. It had been ages since she cried for her parents, for the hurt and anger they'd made her feel when she was left alone and for missing them so much; she never allowed herself those feelings, they weakened her and she always ended up melancholic for days unable to sleep, eat or drink for the lump in her throat. But this time the lump wasn't just the product of the encountered feelings of longing and hurt toward her parents, but also because of him and his obnoxious way to show her, even without caring to, that her life wasn't as great as she thought it was.

* * *

As soon as Warren shut close the car door he had to struggle with the urge to go back to Regina and beg for forgiveness. He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't. He made sure no one spoke of his father, ever, unless he was the one to bring up the subject; Regina was no different. He would treat his friends with the same kind of contempt if they dared to ask something about the Barron, hence making his point clear and making sure it wouldn't happen again in the future. He had already had encounters like this with Will and Layla, and even though he forgot about it later and he wasn't known to carry grudges, they knew better than to try and bring his father to a conversation. He never before felt guilty for making his point. Why on earth was he feeling such a thing right now?

But no matter what he wouldn't go back. He wanted to take her out of his mind, so this might the answear; if she was angry enough then she would ignore him and he could move on. All he had to do was to drive away from her house.

But the next day didn't bring all the hope he was counting on. She hadn't shown up at school –and he knew so because he had looked for her everywhere. He had seen her friends, the three football players and the girl –he thought her name was Hazec- but he didn't spot Regina. Before lunch he had started to panic and his imagination had kicked in, blossoming like ever; she had lived on the streets for years, would she run away now? Had he been that cruel? There was no wondering he had hurt her, but to the point of leaving her home? It hadn't been her home for that long after all, and she did have to put up with Boomer... He considered for a second to approach her friends and ask, but what excuse would he give them? "I insulted her broadly last night and I'm afraid she might have run off." That was plainly ridiculous; she could have a cold for all he knew, and he wasn't the centre of her world, so why would she run away because of him? Nothing he said or him alone were that important for her.

Warren did kept an eye on Boomer during the rest of the day, however, and not just an eye; he had the rule to never use his omni-linguist powers to get benefit, but this time he simply had to know.

Observing Boomer didn't tell him much, just that he was tired, had mother issues, was going through his middle life crissis and that Regina was home sick. He didn't seam too worried for her, worried enough considering she claimed to have just a stomachache, but he still checked out on her during the day. He phoned her while they were at Power Development, and she must have told him she was feeling better, because his bearing changed at the moment and the concern his smirk had been hiding for the entire day disappeared immediately.

Unless he decided to make a fool of himself and ask Boomer or one of her friends, he wasn't going to learn anything about Regina's condition. It was Friday, so she'd probably be back to school on Monday and then he could relax and see for himself how she was doing; waiting shouldn't be hard for him –he was working at the Agency that weekend and Mr. Page had been hinting lately that he and Will might have a job change soon, considering how well they were behaving- so all he had to do was get her out of his head, stop his imagination and get through with the weekend.

Boy, he had the feeling that wouldn't be that easy.

* * *

As it turns, Mr. Page had meant what he said about getting them out of cleaning duty. However, their brand new job was barely a little more glamorous, being now in charge to clean up the virtual reality room, where every hero practiced daily in whichever environment they preferred against whatever enemy the program would set for them. The plates covering the room needed special care and if stained with blood or other bodily fluid, they should be cleaned properly with most care. It was more tiring than cleaning all the floors –as they'd been doing for the past months- but at least they were now interacting with one of the most important instruments of the Agency, a task which, as Mr. Page told them, was not given to just everybody. He had also mentioned their cleaning abilities were so developed they should be able to manage the virtual reality room, but as far as thy were concerned, their new job was pretty great. At least they were not cleaning the bathrooms.

Regardless his confidence that the weekend would pass quickly, he fond himself looking at the watch every now and then, feeling the minutes go by lamely slowly. Monday couldn't have come soon enough, and when he was finally back at Sky High's hallways, he frenetically began his search for Regina, a glimpse of her, something that would tell his she was fine and then start the tiring process of forgetting her.

He saw her at Power Theory, but she kept avoiding his gaze; he followed her to Maths, but she walked faster and always surrounded by large amounts of people, and once in the classroom, she spared not one look for him. He did a little more following, but Regina grabbed a smiling Megan Hazec rather rudely from the hall and ducked into the nearest girls bathroom and stayed there for God only knew how long. He went to the cafeteria thinking that if she wanted to avoid him then she should at least do so outside the bathroom.

Seeing her laughing with her friends at lunch as he walked in goaded him incredibly. He had spent half an hour waiting outside the bathroom, how the hell had she managed to get out unseen? But he wasn't going to approach her while she was with her little group; he believed in keeping important things intimate and if insulting her and her parents wasn't important enough he didn't know what was. She might have drawn to the same conclusion, for she remained surrounded by Megan and at least one of the guys for the rest of the day, preventing him from going to her and apologize. Because that is what he was doing, no reason to deny that.

The end of the day came and Warren's battled spirit was dangerously low, which increased the probabilities that his temper would rise easily. Will had been the receiver of said temper's rising, but he was so used to it he didn't really care. Actually, he found it amusing. What he did not find amusing was when Warren, tired to get so little outlet with Will started to take it out on Layla, who nearly cried at one point.

He had tried to stay away. He had tried to forget the whole damn business and get on living. He had failed and now he was climbing the tree next to Regina's house so he could get up on the roof and find her window. He was well aware that what he was doing could be considered stupid and unreasonable, but he hadn't been reasonable for days now and he was tired of it. He wanted to get back to his old, careless self, and if he had to apologize for something he didn't actualy think worth an apology then so be it.

His first worry on the matter was to be seen by Boomer and get caught. That worry was soon replaced by falling and breaking his neck, which almost happened when he tripped on one loose tile. Walking more carefully now he reached the left corner of the house where one opened window let in the fresh air and a set of bright blue curtains flew with the breeze. There was music coming from the room and a slight, almost unnoticeable humming; peaking in he saw her lying on her stomach on her bed, a book opened over the pillow, lazily slipping through the pages and humming the tune. Taking his chances, he knocked on the window frame.

She reacted instantly, jumping off the bed and stroding toward Warren. She was angry, he could tell that much without even trying to use his powers and read her. She must have been preparing for bed, he thought. She was wearing a tight white sphagetti strapped tank top and tiny blue shorts, showing him just how narrow her waist really was and how nicely shaped her legs were; he had always known she was short –you couldn miss that sigle fact- but there was nothing childish on her shape... _Cut it off, Peace! Thank God I'm clinging to the roof, who knows what could happen..._

"Didn't you get the hint? I'm ignoring you," she said derogatorily.

"I got the hint. Why d'you think I'm here?"

"Death wish, most likely."

He sighed, exasperated already and they hadn't been talking for more than a minute. "Look," he tried "no one speaks of my father unless I say so. The way I reacted with you the other day is the way I react _every time_ someone brings him into the conversation. I'm sorry if I hurt you," he finished his speech stiffly, the words coming out of him rather tough.

She narrowed her gray eyes suspiciously. "You apologize to every person you insult after they speak of you father?"

"No."

"Why are you apologizing then?"

"Because..." _I don't want to see you hurt_ sounded too foolish and unlike him. "You and I are pretty much in the same situation so if I don't like people saying stuff about my father, then I must assume you don't like it either, so I shouldn't've said what I said."

"Hmm. I didn't see this coming," she confessed, as if she thought Warren incapable of such a thing as apologizing.

"So I like to surprise people," he wasn't planning on smiling. He shouldn't have smiled, but he did soand he saw her breathe in and gasp. He cleared his throat, "I gotta go now. See ya around."

"Bye... Oh, wait!"

He stopped right before jumping off the roof and looked back at her. "You owe me one," she said firmly.

"What for?"

"Forgiving you so easily."

"Okay," he agreed, rather stiffly. "But nothing kinky."

He jumped off the roof as quickly as he could without breaking his neck, not looking back to her window but somehow knowing she was still watching him. Walking as fast as possible and trying not to look like your regular delinquent Warren got to his car –which he had parked just around the corner, and drove away. He could go now and not feel guilty; he was finally able to get over with her and thinking about her, right?

Then why couldn't he get out of his head the image of her lying on the bed with her tight tank top and her short shorts?

* * *

**hello hello, my dear readers! do I or do I not keep my updating promises? I said two weeks and here you got, a brand new chapter! as a reward I think you should all -and by _all_ I mean the large amount of people I know is reading this fic- leave a review, I don't care if it's a short one, one word if you like to express what you think; it would mean a lot.**

**sooo, what'd you think of Warren's second power? I know we don't see nothing of this in the movie, but he does have two super parents andit seamed to me during the film that he had a way to _get_ what people were saying, you know what I mean? especially in the scene when he he asks Layla for how long has she been in love with Will... anyway, I just thought it'd be just funny to give him a second power...**

**thank you for reading and I dearly hope to get some reviews. do you want an incentive? every review will get a heads up of a significantly scene of the next chapters. what I'm saying if that you will get my review reply along a transcribed scene of both Regina and Warren. maybe you get the first kiss...**

**hope I touch a nerve mmmwwwwahaha**


	10. With you, Reg, never at you

**Hello every body! Before you start reading I have some explaining to do.**

**First; the chapter you're about to read was originally the chapter number eleven of this story, meaning there was another chapter labeled number ten. Why have I decided to change them, you might be asking yourselves, but I havegood reasons. you see, the original chapter ten was a huge information give-away, and while it was most definitely interesting it was also rather long and pointless. don't worry, the story plot hasn't changed and you'll still be reading that missing chapter -just not very soon.**

**Second; I've decided I'll be rewording reviews with trivia about this story or even some more scenes of the chapters to come. of course, I'll still be updating to the very end of this fic no matter the amount of reviews I get, so that's not to worry. I just figured you'd like a little heads up.**

**Last -but not least; those of you who reviewed and got in return the scene I know you loved will be happy to know that due to my change in schedule you'll be reading the whole about it just now. anxious, aren't we? I thought so...**

**So, with no further rambling from my part, I present you with my latest chapter. Enjoy!**

Chapter ten: With you, Reg, never at you.

"I can't decide! Argh, this is so frustrating," Megan complained while staring at two equally beautiful night dresses. "What d'you think?" she turned to Regina standing next to her.

"Well..."

"That's it, I'm not taking either. Lets go to Mademoiselle Jaqueline's, they've got designer's copies."

They headed to the door, not sparing a single look to the infuriated shop keeper who didn't seam to appreciate them preferring other place.

"I told you we should go there in the first place," Regina said in a sing sang voice. "That's were I found my dress."

They walked the two blocks to the shop, stopping every now and then whenever they saw something interesting on the store windows, whether they were shoes or a top they liked. They even stopped to buy lingerie which neither of them really needed but it was useless to try and resist the temptation. Considering how short the distance was between Mademoiselle Jaqueline's and Gassen, the store where they had previously been, it took them a whole hour to get to their destination, though they arrived carrying bags of shoes, make up and clothes, which none of them regretted the least bit.

It was a very elegant place, the walls and the floor white alike with glass counters and expressionless mannequins displaying beautiful dresses standing over white platforms. The shop keeper –a woman almost two heads taller that Regina and wearing a plain, knee length, sleeveless black dress- approached them, suspiciously inspecting them.

"May I help you?" she said coldly.

"I've got blue Dolcecopy to pick up. My name's Regina Boomowski, I believe I spoke with your supervisor the last time I was here."

The woman headed to the counter in the back of the shop where she checked Regina's order on her computer and then came back shortly after to the girls, who were inspecting some of the dresses in exposition.

"If you follow me to the dresser, Miss Boomowski, I'll be back with your order in a minute."

"Sure. Oh, and my friend would like to take a look at your collection."

An hour later they left the shop very smiling and carrying identical black and white boxes. Along with all the other bags they had it was quite difficult to walk with all of the, and neither of them had a car with them.

"See! This is why I keep saying we need a boyfriend who owns a car," Megan said.

"And has no life, otherwise he wouldn't be available whenever we need him," Regina pointed out as she spotted a café on the next corner. "Let's go sit over there for a while till we figure out what to do."

"Okay, but walk slowly, I don't wat to drop anything."

Fifteen minutes later they were sitting in a table outside the café and having coffee with the bags safely resting on two empty chairs; they soon forgot they should be calling a cab or a parent, immersed as they were in the current conversation.

"So which one of the Fishlike Tripplets is taking you to Homecoming?" Regina asked. "I always confuse Mathew with Richard..."

"Me too. That's why I didn't realized I was dating both in Freshman Year."

"How could you not notice?"

"Well, I knew thy were two different guys I just didn't know who was who and for two identical guys they kissed so differently," she grinned with the reminiscence.

"Different as in...?"

"Oh, real good. One of them had a tongue piercing... I think it was Richard..."

Regina was laughing by now. Ignorant as she was about kissing she had no idea of how could a person feel so good just by remembering a kiss, and by the relaxed look in her friend's face, she must be feeling more than just "good".

"Anyway, I'm going with Greg," she answered Regina's earlier question. "He's kinda cool."

"You haven't kissed him yet?" Regina asked in feigned shock.

"You think I go through living making out with everybody?" Regina nodded, matter-of-factly. "Well, you're wrong. I'm saving Greg for the dance. Speaking of dancing, how come you have no date yet? Homecoming is in two days."

"It's not like I've been rejecting every offer. Must I remind you I haven't got any?"

"So why don't you ask a guy?"

"If they don't ask me then obviously they don't like me so I don't really see the point..."

Regina had to stop because Megan had chocked with her coffee and was now half coughing half laughing with no apparent reason. She waited patiently for Megan to stop and explain, a little voice in her head telling her her friend was laughing at her.

"Would you like to share it with the group?"

Megan stared at her as if she couldn't believewhat she was hearing. "You're Reggie freaking Boomowski! The guys are totally scared of even looking at you because of what your uncle might do!"

"Hold it. You mean I don't have a date because they're cowards? What the Hell? Aren't they supposed to be the next generation of heroes? Screw them all!"

"I can fix you up with one of the remaining Fishlike Triplets..."

"I don't want you're leftovers."

"Honey, you're gonna have to accept at least half the male population at Sky High is part of my leftovers."

Now Regina was really shocked. "Not Colin, Mike and Kyle, I hope."

"Well..." at Regina's gasp and incredulous look Megan blushed profusely and her voice turned a little more high-pitched. "It was only once, Mike and I went to the movies, back in Junior Year, and that was it, nothing really happened," she refused to look at Regina's inquiring gray eyes.

"Bulshit. How far did you get?"

"It was just a kiss..." Regina snorted, disbeliever. "Okay, third base. Are you happy now?"

"OH MY GOD! I can't believe you got so far with Mike! I mean he's Mike, our Mike, and in the first date! How can you be friends after that?"

"Won't you shout harder?! I don't think my mother heard you!" Megan whispered quickly, looking both sides to the people sitting around them. "Stop laughing!"

"You're such a slut!" Regina squeaked joyfuly. "It's so funny! I wonder what the guys have to say about this... Of course, they must know, right? I mean, How could they not? Imagine all the many time they even discussed the matter!"

"Don't you think I don't know what you're doing," Megan replied, a knowing sparkle in her hazel eyes. "You diverted the conversation to me cuz you don't want to face your thing."

"I don't have a thing. I'm perfect," Regina stated blatantly as she drank some coffee.

"Right. So once we pass by your fear of being abandoned, your serious lack of social behaviour knowledge and your mother – daughter psych consult worthy issues we still have you dateless because you're afraid of boys."

"I'm not afraid of boys! I have three male buddies if you haven't noticed."

"Regina," the fact that she was using her full name got her total attention and seriousness. "Have you ever been kissed?"

It was her time to blush and move awkwardly in her seat, avoiding Megan's triumphant gaze. It was pathetic, yes, but truth nonetheless. She had forbidden herself to get close to anyone sinceshe was dumped in St. George's Orphanage so boys and kissing were never really a possibility in her life until now and, she had to admit, she was far behind of whatever experienceany other girl her age might had. She was now facing a situation she had previously only dreamed of and the worst of all was that when she finally got to kiss a guy –which she sincerely hoped to happen soon- she would find herself awfully inexperienced and exposed to embarrassment when the guy doing the kissing found her dull and awkward. A thirteen year old could outlive that, especially considering the other part involved in the deal would be pretty much as inexperienced as she would be, but that didn't count for her current situation. She was an old maid and she was not even eighteen. _Holy Crap._

"I intend to change that at Homecoming. Even if I don't have a date I'm sure I'll find someone interested in kissing me."

"But it'd be your first kiss, don't you want it to be special?"

"Frankly, Meg, I'll settle for it to happen, period," Regina said dispassionately. "At this point, I can't afford special."

"Aren't you the romantic one on the bunch?" her friend retorted sarcastically.

"Look who's talking! You can't even tell between two guys!"

"Twins! I bet you couldn't either."

"How much are we betting?" she leaned forward over the table.

Before Megan could answer a car stopped in the street and they heard the horn go off. They turned their heads and saw Colin, who was smiling and waving his hand to them.

"Hey girls, how you doing?" he greeted cheerfully.

"We were just waiting to call for a cab," Regina left the table to say hello.

"Get in, I'll take you girls home."

After piling up the bags on the back seat Megan quickly joined them making Regina sit on the passenger's seat next to Colin. Megan's home was nearest and they got there in a few minutes. When she got out of the vehicle she said in Regina's ear: "Maybe you should reconsider going alone and invite Colin instead. He has no date either."

"He's my friend!"

"For like a month. It doesn't really count."

Regina could hardly bear with herself and sitting in his car after that. Annoyingly, she could vividly recall a situation very similar to this one, only in a different car and with a different guy. But the feeling was just the same, too warm, too embarrassed.

"So you're coming with us in the limmo? I know Megan is going with the Fishlike Triplets, but if you wanna go with your date there's no problem..."

"No, I don't have a date," she thought she saw him smile, pleased, but she must be mistaken. Surely, it was just the setting sun light.

"Yeah, me neither... Anyway, Mike's going with Katherine Snowflake and Kyle with Macy Knaur, so you and me will be only ones going alone," he said casually.

_Was that a hint?_

"I guess. Why don't you have a date?" she asked. "I'm sure there're plenty of girls who'd be honored."

"Yeah... Well, there's this one girl but I can't seam to find the right time to ask her," he turned to her at the red light and fixated his blue gaze on her eyes.

_Okay, that has to be hint! Right? Damned my lack of social behaviour knowledge!_

"I'm sure she'd think any time is the right time," she said cautiously, just in case it wasn't a hint. "But you gotta ask her before the dance. Maybe she won't even go."

He wasn't smiling now; in fact, his golden eyebrows had come to form a frown and he raked one hand through his golden inane, always staring to the front. Regina was mentally kicking herself; she had upset him, made him fell less confident and if it had been a hint now he probably would think she wasn't interested and wouldn't ask her. _Nicely done Boomowski._

She decided to follow Megan's advise. After all, what was the worst that could happen?

_He could say no._

_Oh, shut up!_

"D'you want to go to Homecoming with me?" he turned to her so abruptly she was sure she heard a crack on his neck. His look was incredulous. "No kidding."

"Reggie...! I was gonna ask you!" he actually felt offended.

"You were taking too damn long! I did us both a favor."

"I was getting there," he argued.

"You had your chance. If I'm gonna have a date I need to know about it before the actual date takes place," somehow she didn't feel arguing was what they should be doing right now. Besides, she never fought with Colin; he was always so even tempered when she was around her. "So are we going together or not?"

"Yes. What color do you want your bouquet?" he asked hotly.

"Oh, I'm allergic to flowers," he raised his eyebrows questioningly. "They give me a rash."

He laughed, the short argue quickly left behind. "You're full of surprises, Reggie Boomowski."

"You have no idea."

* * *

The gym looked absolutely beautiful. The bleachers had disappeared, as well as the Save the Citizen destroying machine. Instead, small, round tables were disposed around the dancing area, one half covered with dark orange table clothes and the other half with dark blue and a white vessel in the middle of each with white flowers and a candle floating on water. The chairs were also white and there were balloons with the school colors and the coat of arms covering the whole place. The tall windows showed the always moving stars, giving the feeling the navy blue sky was dancing around them when it was actually the school that was constantly kept in slow motion.

It was pretty dim inside the gym, the only lights coming from the candles in each table and the lights in the dancing floor; the music was loud, but not loud enough for not to hear the person right next to you and the chilled, joyful environment around you and the laughing.

There was a bufét were you could go with a plate and pick up whatever you wanted among the large variety of cheese, ham, olives and sandwitches. The punch fountains were refilled every now and then by the teacher assigned to the table, and spiked by the students whenever they weren't looking.

Said punch was handed to Regina by Colin, who warned her just in case she didn't want to drink any alcohol. She just stared at him and drank it at once, tasting the sweet ginger ale and the strong spirits added. She didn't know what kind of liquor it was, but she sure liked it and demanded Colin to bring some more.

She was having a great time. She had feared the guys would be tired and taciturn after the football match they'd played that day versus Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters –which Sky High won- but they weren't; in fact the group did their best to have a great time, even though, Regina had to admit, there were a few things that were darkening the night.

The first thing she noticed was Mike's date, Katherine Snowflake, the beautiful, tall blond who along her two other friends were the first to show Regina she wasn't welcomed at Sky High and had followed her around the hallways the first day of classes just to make her feel unconfortable. She hadn't warmed up to Regina even though they shared the limo, the table and the same conversation with the guys, and still treated her with almost well hidden contempt; ironically, she was a cryokinetic and though beautiful, she acted like an ice queen, untouchable and her beauty was cold and odd. Regina didn't see her smile not once, at least not smiling like she meant it, but only seductive smiles to Mike whenever he turned to her.

Things had gotten weird between them after they arrived at Sky High and met Megan and her date. He was quite handsome, though only a few inches taller that her and rather slim. Albeit not identical to his brothers, he did resembled to them a lot, specially in the watery green eyes, which they all shared. Megan on the other hand looked absolutely gorgeous; her high waist, strapless, golden, chiffon Valentino copy fitted her perfectly, showed off her long legs and her brown hair was loose with a single golden hair pin holding one side of her inane. For some reason –and Regina believed that reason to be Mike's blunt reaction after seeing her so beautiful- Katherine Snowflake diverted her contempt at Megan as well, hinting her hair looked hideous and that the dress had obviously been chosen without the least bit of stylish consideration. Calmly, as if she couldn't care less of Katherine's opinion, Megan asked her politely to back off before she drawn her on the punch fountain**.**

Another thing menacing to ruin her night was Boom showing up next to her and Colin every time they sought for a moment alone; he always had an excuse, like commenting something about the match to Colin, or bringing them some alcohol-free punch or just passing by, pretending he hadn't seen them sneaking off to a dark corner. Albeit frustrating, she and Colin had a great time avoiding Boom and trying to find a quiet place, up until the moment his ex-girlfriend asked him to have a word.

He was a gentleman, so he took her apart and they spoke for a long time, long enough for Regina to drink at least ten glasses of spiked punch, not counting all the others she'd had before. The result was, of course, a very intoxicated Regina who only held still because she wanted to hear her date's explanation for his absolute dismiss of her.

"Wha' the hell are they talkin' abou'?" she asked, more to herself than to Megan standing right next to her. She didn't notice, but she was slurring her words.

Megan tried to take away from her hand the glass Regina had just poured some more punch into. "I don't know, but you had enough of this already."

"No I haven't!" she grabbed her drink tighter, still staring at the couple sitting at a round table in the other side of the gym. "She's not even pretty," she scorned, drinking some more. "And who does she think she is with that cape clingin' to 'er neck? It's hideous!"

Slowly so she wouldn't fall, Megan took her to their table were they sat and continued to stare at Colin and his ex. Regina kept drinking and when her glass was empty once again, she made a new one come floating from the nearest fountain. How she could still be in full control of her powers after the amount of alcohol she'd ingested was a mystery to Megan, but right now all she could do was pray to God hat Boom didn't notice just how intoxicated his niece was.

"I don' even know 'er name. Wha's 'er name?" she turned to her friend.

"I don't know either..."

Her eyes suddenly widened open as if she'd had the most brilliant idea in her life she said, "Go ask Mike or Kyle! They 've to know!"

"I don't wanna leave you alone, Reggie," she quietly refused.

"Please?" the doe eyes had to work on her friend. "I'll stay right here. I promise."

"Okay," she granted unwillingly. "I'll be back in a sec."

Regina smiled and clapped her hands cheerfully.

Megan had been gone for only a minute when somebody else joined her at her table. Focusing her eyes, she saw Warren taking the seat next to her. He had been watching her for a while, actually, ever since she got to the dance. He had been amazed by her look and her dazzling smile and then confused when he saw Colin leave with another girl and Regina drinking punch glasses nonstop and getting more and more inebriated.

"Hey Regina. What's up?"

"My date's courtin' 'is ex," she retorted angrily.

"Then why are you sitting here instead of doing something?" he asked.

"I can't. I'm afraid I'll fall if I try to walk," they went silent for a while, during which Regina's humor had sank rather deep and the loud music was giving her a headache. "I wanna go home. I wish I were at home right now."

He hated to see her like this, so downed and dejected. She should be having fun right now instead of drunk and sad and Colin Culpepper was to blame. He had a serious urge to rearrange the guy's face, but that wouldn't do any good to her so he restrained from following that course of action. At least for now.

"I'll take you home," he stood up and held a hand for her to grab it.

"I don't think I can handle flyin' on a jet-pack. I'll puke all over you," she warned him, speaking very slowly so her tongue wouldn't curl.

"I have my car and it's prepared to fly. We'll get to your place safely and if you feel like puking you can always lower down the window."

She laughed, held his hand and stood up -too fast. Dizziness took over, making the room sway for a moment, until both hands pressing against hes temples brought it under control. She then noticed he was holding her tightly around her waist, afraid she'd fall.

"Whoa, you really are drunk," he looked for Boom among the crowd and found him talking to Mr. Boy. "Let's get you out of here before your uncle sees you."

They passed the gym's double doors and into the hallway leading outside of the building. Warren wasn't holding Regina anymore so he didn't notice she wasn't walking next to him until he was 10 feet away from her; he turned to find her, expecting to see her leaning against a wall or fallen to the floor, but saw her standing in front of the double doors and staring at them, waiting.

"Regina," he called. "What are you doing?"

"I'm waitin' for Colin. He must've noticed I left with you so he should be crossin' these doors any minute now to come find me," she explained, so sure her reasoning was correct.

Warren walked to the doors and opened one, poking his head inside for a moment. When he re-surfaced he closed the door one more time and stared down at her, a look of pity in his eyes which she missed, dazed as she was.

"Sorry, but he's still with his ex and he doesn't seam to be coming out anytime soon," he said lowly. "They're dancing."

She had to see it for herself. And she did. Colin was holding his ex tightly as they moved to the sound of a slow song. Her heart sank low into her belly, a feeling of betrayal overtaking her. She wanted to cry and to scream but she wouldn't. Not in front of Warren.

"Take me home."

It took them a while though, to finally get to the car. Regina had to walk very slowly, clinging to Warren or to the wall and for a lifetime of walking she sure felt it took a lot of her strength and concentration to put one foot in front of the other and remain standing. She had no balance and the only thing strong and still in her world was Warren next to her, for even the floor under her feet seamed to be moving nonstop. She had to take off her heels, and it was a lot of easier to walk bare feet, but she kept tripping on her dress so she had to add that to all f her current troubles.

Once in the car she felt better and closed her eyes in the hope her head might clear and maybe, just maybe, she could be able to think and ponder over how terrible her night had got to be.

"Damned Colin! How could 'e do this to me?" she cried. "All I wanted was a normal Homecomin', you know, dancin', drinkin', makin' out..."

"Well, you got one out of three," Warren replied caustically.

"You think this is funny? Let me tell ya somethin' funny. I spent seventeen years and a half secluded from society, never had a boyfriend or anythin' close to that and then on my very first date –durin' which I hoped to be properly kissed by the first time- I got dumped by my date who'd rather spend time with his ex. Now that's funny. They should make a movie out of that," she said suddenly turning to Warren with her eyes wide open. "Who'd you think they'd cast for my role?"

She sounded so serious, he just stared at her; that was the good thing about driving a flying car, you didn't have to have your eyes on the road all the time.

"I guess I'd have to play my role, I don't think there's an actress who looks like me."

"What would the movie be called?" he played along. You were supposed to keep the drunks happy and he did not want to see pukingly melancholic or violently mad.

"_The life and sorrows of Regina Boomowski_; of course, I'd have to write a book first, a best seller, and then the producers would jump on the idea and make a movie. I'm thinkin' Hugh Jackman as Boom..."

Warren chuckled, he'd never thought he would hear her saying something as stupid as that and the fact that she wasn't joking made a lot funnier. However, he didn't think of her as stupid at the moment, just adorable.

"Are you laughin' at me?" she asked seductively.

"With you, Reg, never at you."

She seamed pleased by his answer and sat more comfortably on the passenger's seat, leaning her back on the door so she could face Warren. He gray eyes sparkling in a way Warren had never seen, he found himself unable to break the gaze, longing for closer contact... after a moment of tension his eyes dropped the delicate mole on her left cheekbone standing out over her fair, creamy skin and then to her lips, her lusty, bowed, red lips, never kissed yet so enticing, though not as much as the other mole, the one low down her throat... He wondered if she had other moles on her body and whether she'd refuse to let him find out...

For God's sake, was he going to have to mentally pull himself together every time he saw the girl?

But she did look absolutely worthy of being adored that night so Warren couldn't help the way his body was reacting toward her. Her halter strapped, blue, satin dress fitted her as if it had been drawn over her and it showed more bosom than what he would've allowed her to wear... And to think that stupid Culpepper had had her for himself during the whole night! Thank God he hadn't kissed her, otherwise Warren would've...

_Hold that thought Pea__ce, you ain't her boyfriend and you ain't never gonna be so who she kisses is none of your business!_

"We're almost there," he said abruptly, finally breaking the charm that held him to her deep eyes.

"Warren?" she still had that seductive hiss on her voice.

"Hmm?"

"Would you kiss me?"

"What?!" he cried out.

She narrowed her eyes biting her bottom lip in a way Warren could only take as tempting. She then said softly, "Do I really need to repeat my question?"

"What makes you think I'd kiss you?"

"I might be drunk, Warren, but not stupid. You feel attracted to me."

At the moment he didn't think her blunt honesty to be one of her best treats.

"And I'm attracted to you too, so lets do it," she confessed. Warren felt his heart double beat. She leaned toward him. "Kiss me."

"No," he refused. No matter how much he wanted it, nothing good could come out of that.

"You're goin' to let me continue going on through life, inexperienced about kissing?"

"Hell, yeah. You'll find someone else..."

"I don't want anyone else. I want you," even in her inebriated state she was sure that hadn't she drank so much she wouldn't be saying something like that. But she was determined to get something good out of this terrible night and Warren Peace was going to provide it. "I can make you do it, I really can. I've been practicin' and I don't faint anymore."

She was so focused she didn't noticed they had landed and were now a few blocks away from her house. Just a few more minutes, Warren thought, and he'd leave her at her house. By the next time they'd met she would be too embarrassed to mention anything about their conversation. Maybe she'd even forgot the whole thing by the next morning.

"But I don't wanna make you. As much as I want it to happen I want your willingness more."

He hit the break all too suddenly, making them both launch to the front. Regina shoved her hands to her temples, the headache reappearing with all it's might. She closed her eyes until the world stopped whirling.

"We're here," Warren announced, but she did nothing to get out of the car. She stared at his dark eyes waiting for something he wasn't going to give her. "I'm not gonna kiss you. Go inside your home and have some sleep. You'll forget all this madness in the morning."

She still wouldn't move.

"What?!" he asked exasperated.

"I can't walk alone, I'll fall," she looked at him with innocent doe eyes. Totally feigned, Warren was sure.

He got out of the car grumbling; he was sure it was just and excuse to temp him into kissing her, to get her way without concern of his own feelings. Could she be any more selfish? He opened her door and helped her up, grabbing her by the arm and keeping her at a safe distance. She tripped before they got to the steps of the front door, a bit overdone, in Warren's opinion, especially when she clung to his neck to prevent from falling.

He had to admit it worked. Surrounded by her essence, with her breast pressing against his chest and her eyes silently pleading for an innocent kiss he could do nothing but surrender to her beautiful mouth. But if she wanted a kiss, a real kiss, then she'd have to abide to the consequenses.

He put his arms around her waist, pressing her to his body and lifted her so the height gap wouldn't bother them. In one breath he closed the distance between them and pressed his lips against hers, claiming her soul, his mouth moving sensually over hers. She joyfully gave in, nibbling and rubbing and then he parted her lips and Regina met Heaven

His tongue thrust gently into her mouth, seeking for hers and when he found it he wouldn't let it go. It was like a struggle, a very pleasant one, swirling and thrusting and tasting. This man consumed her senses and controlled every one of them, and not just with his mouth, but with his body. The hand he placed on her back kept her from retreating from the slow rub and press of his chest, which gave her the oddest feeling, as if her breasts were being caressed and kneaded by turns. And there was heat coming out of him, wrapping Regina and making her feel she was floating.

Warren was no less caught in the storm he had created. All the months he'd thought of her and all the restrains he had set were quickly forgotten, all that mattered was that she was kissing him. He had been her first kiss. Possessiveness took over and her held her more tightly.

But it had to end and soon enough they had to part for air; her skin was bright pink and he could feel her heart pounding along his, breathing in and out harshly, gasping for air, a look of passion he'd never seen in her eyes. And that's when he got it. It had been a mistake.

"You should go to bed," he said softly in her ear, still holding her.

"I'm not tired."

He caressedher cheek, touching the so longed mole, and gave her a short kiss. "You should go to bed."

Warren helped her with the steps and waited for her to open the door and get inside. He must leave her.

_One more__._

Regina must've thought the same for she stole a kiss from him, a sweet one and smiled broadly before closing the door. The feeling of being in Heaven would accompany her the whole night, maybe even longer, but Warren was sure there was only Hell coming up for him.

* * *

Regina was leaving the bathroom when she got a text from Megan. It simply said WHERE R U? And she replied, remembering at the moment she had left the dance without telling anyone; in the morning she was sure she'd feel guilty about it –and Megan would made sure of that- but right now all she could feel was joy. Kissing Warren had been the most pleasant activity she'd ever had so far and she kept longing for more... She wasn't sure what exactly would happen the next day, but she knew she couldn't not kiss him ever again. After all, it had been completely amazing and not repeating it would be a waste. And he wouldn't refuse, she knew that much just by the way he held her and looked at her, so passionately it burned her skin and made her stomach turn over and flatter, which was such a funny feeling, she was appalled by the urge to giggle and throwing herself to him and kiss him and touch him until she was finally satisfied.

Once she rested her head on the pillow she sighed and closed her eyes waiting for sleep to take over, but was immediately interrupted by the door bell. How could that be? It was almost midnight and Boom had his key... She covered her body with a long robe and went down stairs, were the visitor kept annoyingly ringing the bell.

"Who is it?" she cried behind the closed door.

"It's me, Colin."

It was his voice, but he could be a shape-shifter, a villain, someone who meant harm to her or Boom. She didn't open the door.

"Prove it," she demanded. She heard him sigh and the next thing she knew he had materialized in front of her. "What the hell are you doing here?"

It wasn't hard for her to speak now; in fact, after kissing Warren everything had seamed so clear and her headache had lessened considerably. She was hissing at him however, but it had nothing to do with her drunken state. It was all pure anger.

"I had to see you."

"Was your ex no longer available? Or you and her are current now and you wanted to tell me yourself?" she scorned.

"No, we're done!" he assured, walking one step closer to her, closing a distance she quickly managed to gain back by taking one step back.

"Could've fooled me..."

"Apparently I did!" he was angry now, too. "Look, she told me he thought she was pregnant and she said it had to be mine."

Regina was lost for words now, his excuse quite good. But she still didn't buy it.

"And she chose Homecoming to tell you? Please, besides I saw you two dancing."

"I was comforting her. She wouldn't take the test..."

"How convenient!"

"Will you stop it? How'd you think I feel about this whole thing?"

Oh God, he wasn't playing with her and he believed in his ex's word. She was such an insensitive idiot.

"Wha.. what're you gonna do? She has to take the test!" she chocked.

"I know; she just did and it was a false alarm," he added.

Angry again, she hit him on the arm. "You could've said so before!"

"I was too busy handling with your scorning," he half smiled, sure they were cool now.

"Well, Colin, I'm entitled to that, I just got dumped at Homecoming," Regina remembered him bitterly.

His smile faded quickly and he moved around the foyer awkwardly. "I'm sorry," he finally said. "Let me make it up for you," he went closer to her –Regina didn't back up this time- put a hand on her wist and held her hand with the other. "May I have this dance?"

She smiled reluctantly, feeling how her anger rapidly vanishing.

"Don't we need music for this?" she asked.

"I'm going to hum, and if you laugh about my humming, I'll tell everyone at school you have a Winnie the Poo robe and you actually wear it," he said lowly into her ear referring to the robe she was wearing at the moment. She chuckled. He gently grabbed her face with both his hands and leaned to kiss her.

* * *

**So? what do you think? love me or hate me right now? Jusy don't decide which before you read what happens after _that_!**

**Please leave a review! I promiss you won't regret...**


	11. To reduce Regina Boomowski to tears

**Hello! Here I am, bringing you yet another chapter for you to read! I hope everybody enjoyed last one, even those of you who hadn't reviewed, hence giving me no clue of your feeling toward this fic. to those who do leave reviews, I thank you again and encorage you to continue with that healthy custom.**

**Ok, so my rewording of reviews will go like this for this chapter: you'll ask me a question (or tell me what you want to know) and, if possible, I'll answer it. Please, do not ask things like "when will Warren and Regina get together?" or the kind, for I can answer that or I'll be giving a lot of the story away. other than that kind of questions, I'll be more than happy to enlighten you in whatever makes you wonder.**

**I keep you no longer, so go and read!**

Chapter eleven: To reduce Regina Boomowski to tears.

It was Regina's favourite time of the day, the first few awake seconds right before she opened her eyes to the morning day. The warmth in her cozy bed, the smell of her hair on the pillow, the peace and silence that surrounded her... nothing could compare to that. She thought she could lay there forever and be perfectly happy with it... In fact, she was determined to stay in bed that day, after all she'd been up late the night before...

She giggled. God, she was doing that a lot lately_. Mental note: learn how to contain giggling._ But then again, it just felt so good! She was happy, really, and nothing in the world could spoil it. Well, there was one thing that could spoil it, but she was determined to keep that out of her thoughts; there was no place in her current state of mind for Warren Peace and his lusty lips.

Regina finally opened her eyes and looked at her window. She should've drawn the curtains before going to bed last night so the sun light wouldn't wake her up early in the morning, but she had been just too happy, too distracted to even consider that. However, she had slept rather soundly and the sun was up in the sky, so it wasn't that early. A quick glance to her alarm proved her right, it was only a couple minutes after noon. She normally never slept this long, but considering the amount of alcohol she had drunk the night before a good night sleep was all she needed. She still had a headache, thought, but it was manageable, and an aspirin and some coffee would take care of it. She grumbled, remembering no coffee was allowed in the house. Just as well, she'd have to settle for another thing, because she wasn't leaving to buy coffee. She'd rather stay there.

Would Colin call her? She giggled again. _For crying out loud!_She grabbed her pillow and pressed it against her face, to ease the noice. Then she remembered the rooms were sound proof, so unless she opened her door wide open no sound would leave her room.

Of course he would call her, he'd promised. Thinking about her time with Colin gave her a pleasant feeling, like butterflies on her belly, not like the burning and craving Warren had awoken in her last night...

_Get him out of yo__ur head! We've been through this last night, Colin is now your boyfriend and he wouldn't like you fantasizing about another guy!_

_I wasn't fantasizing!_

_Were to!_

_Were not!_

_You can't lie to me! I'm you, remember?_

_  
_She sighed, after all the voice of her conscience had a point there. She had made her decision last night and believed she had made the right one. After all, Warren hadn't said anything about them repeating their kissing; it had been great, yes, but she barely knew Warren, never hang out with him, didn't know what he liked or disliked and, frankly, they were all to frequently going at each other's throat's with murderous attempts. They just didn't have that kind of chemistry, the only they had in common was the villainly parenting and the grand kissing.

But that wouldn't happen again. Colin was just as good kisser as Warren was and he was sweet and cute and nice and he had been a good friend up until then, so when he told her he had every intention to date with her properly she said yes, knowing she wouldn't regret it. Last night, she was sure her experience with guys would remain null for a long time yet now she had a boyfriend. And what a boyfriend.

She would still have to talk to Warren though, just to make sure he wouldn't be doing anything to jeopardize her brand new relationship with Colin. Her insides whirled. Would he be mad? She should be able to know by now what would make him mad, after all that was aparently the only reaction she'd get from him. Except for last night's kiss...

_Yeah, but he'd been mad just moments before. In fact, I'm sure he only kissed me to prove a point. There you go, he has no reason to be mad. _

_I still think I should talk to him in a public place, surrounded by lots of people... Better safe than sorry..._

So, Regina'll be coming clean tomorrow, at school, where he was less likely to start shouting at her. She laughed, embarrassed of how scared about that talk she really was; knowing Warren, he would stand in front of her as his usual, dispassionate self, raise his left eyebrow, surely amazed of the mixed emotions inside of her at the moment, make some nasty comment and fixate his dark gaze into her eyes until she retraeted in fear. Maybe he'd grumble, but that was as far as a emotion display from him as she was going to get. And then she'd run to Colin and they could start their relationship without one single, lousy thought about Warren Peace itching and scratching inside her mind. No matter what it took her, she was moving on.

* * *

About an hour or so later she got up and went downstairs to get something to eat and say hi to Boom. She found him on the living room, pacing around the coffee table, which was completely covered by a mock-up of Sky High's football field. There were twenty two miniatures of the players, eleven painted on the school's colors and eleven painted black. Boom was forming them and writing things down in his chart, making changes on the formation and pace around the mock-up to see it from different angles. He was highly stimulated, probably because they'd won the day before and he intended to win next game too; Mike had told her that last season they lost the cup against Elite Way High School, another super hero training school around the country. Just to mention that school would get the whole team angry, mainly because of the countless practical jokes Elite Way had played on them after winning the championship game. Besides, Elite Way's coach was one of Boom's old nemesis. All in all, losing was not an option.

"Hi Boom."

"Hey," Boom stopped pacing and gazed at her. "You slept awfully late today."

"I was tired..." Regina dived her spoon inside the ice cream box she had previously gotten from the fridge.

"So it had nothing to do with you and Culpepper disappearing so mysteriously from the school last night?" he crossed his arms over his wide chest.

"I... didn't disappear _with_ Colin," she specified. "I left with Warren Peace," she murmured.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" he boomed.

"I was mad at Colin, I wanted to come home and he offered to give me a ride..."

"WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME INSTEAD OF SNEAKING OUT?!"

She should lie. Really. But she couldn't lie to Boom.

"I couldn't... I... was drunk," Regina confessed. She was now pressing her back against the wall, so far she had back down in order to scape Boom's fury, holding the ice cream box as if it could give her some kid of shelter. "I'm sorry! I was upset!"

"WHAT DID HE DO TO LEAD YOU TO DRINKING?" In spite of being so livid, he hadn't moved an inch from his original spot.

"I can't tell you. I... it's all over now... we already worked things up," she tried to mild the situation.

"When?" this time, he spoke lowly, a clear sign of how mad he really was. Booming Boom wasn't really _that_ angry. It was when he reverted to a low tone of speaking after booming that he was most deadly. His tone did not admit lying.

"He came over last night," and, before his anger got roof-raising, Regina added, "but he left quickly and it was a very proper visit."

"Proper," he repeated doubtfully.

"Yes. He made it very clear –after he apologized, of course- that he had honest intentions toward me."

Boom had stopped breathing. She was sure he'd turn blue any minute now. She was feeling quite awkward herself, after all, Boom was really the only father figure she had –Roger Boomowski didn't count at all-, and there she was, coming clean about how a guy had visited her in the middle of the night, while she was completely alone and how he wanted a relationship with her. Regina was sure he didn't see anything "proper" or "honorable" about that.

"I'll kill him," he finally determined.

"Boom, please...!" the door bell cut her off, as well as disconcert her. Who was ringing their bell a Sunday afternoon?

"This isn't over," Boom warned as he strode to the front door.

Regina left the ice cream on the coffee table and sat on the couch, waiting and praying. _Please, don't let it be Colin. Please, please, please!_ Boom's voice came to her from the foyer.

"Can I help you?" he asked rather rudely. She coldn't hear to the caller's answer, but she did hear Boom's feedback. "What'd you mean you're Gigi's nanny? Who the hell's Gigi?"

_No way._

Regina ran to the front door, her heart pounding with excitement. She tripped when she turned on the foyer –Mrs. McFlawly had waxed it's wodden floor yesterday- and almost fell on her butt, but she managed to cling to wall. Boom was staring at her as if she were nuts, his mouth half open. Opposite to him, still on the porch, was standing a beautiful woman. Had she been wearing a white gown she'd look like an angel with missing wings of her back. The outfit she had chosen for the day, however, was no less stylish: a dark beige day suit with knee length tube skirt and matching jacket, over a pristine white blouse. She had a red scarf made of some silky material resting loosely around her neck.

She had jaw length, blond, almost snow white, straight hair, slightly curled up on the ends, her brows and her eyelashes darker than her hair, only a more golden shade. Her green eyes were so pale they gave an always relaxing view of the woman, as if she was incapable to use her very own eyes to look at anyone with nothing else than love and compassion. Her kind smile helped a lot.

She was also slender and rather tall, standing a head and a half taller than Regina, though part of that was due to her beautiful, red high heels. Quick math told Regina she must be around thirty by now, yet the woman still radiated youth.

"Gigi, m'dear, it's been so long!" she cried with an unmistakable British accent and shoved Boom off the way. Regina met her half way down and they hugged, so long indeed had been since they last saw each other. "Let me take a look at you. Good grief, you've grown so much! You're not the little girl I remember a'tall!"

"You haven't changed a bit," Regina said joyfully. She heard Boom close the door behind them. "Though your shoes are definitely better than the ones I remember you wearing," she teased, smiling.

"I know. I must say I've gone a long way since we parted," she nodded, seriously.

"I hate to interrupt such a loving reunion, but would you mind telling me who the hell are you?" a very confused Boom asked.

Regina winced. Boom had asked a question, and one that would take a long time to answer. That could be endless. If Boom and her had been acquainted, Regina was sure her nanny would have snorted before proceeding to answer the question, but since Boom didn't know the least bit about her, the woman smiled indulgently.

"I'm Lady Evelyn Trewlyn. I'm the daughter of Arthur Hugh Trewlyn, Duke of Beresford and his late wife, Lady Charlotte Amelia Trewlyn, née Hawthorne, daugther of the earl of Towerfield. I am English, as it figures, and I am, such as yourselves, a super, though I don't save the world or try to destroy it currently. I am a fan of the Beatles, thank you very much. I am at the moment thirty years, three months, sixteen days, nine hours, twenty minutes and fifty seconds old. I am natural blond, my eyes are mine also. The only surgery I've went through was an appendectomy when I was thirteen years, eight months, twenty two days, sixteen hours, eleven minutes and six seconds old. I am fond of old movies, chocolates and biscuits. I also enjoy eating meat, especially lamb, and my favourite drink is vodka, though I only drink it privately. I am Cancer, though I don't believe in astrology. And I, unlike most super people, don't follow common standards of monochromatism."

Boom must've thought Evelyn was playing some sort of joke on her, turning mad again after being so dazled during Evelyn's discurse. She wasn't done, however.

"Also, I'm..."

"Stop answering," Regina commanded, and Evelyn gladly did so.

"Are you...?" he started angrily.

"Don't ask any questions!" Regina warned. "If you do we'll be here all day and she doesn't like having to answer stupid questions!"

"What? Why?" he turned again to Evelyn, who shut her eyes close, an attempt to control her temper.

"I cannot lie," she explained. "It is a direct consequence of my actual power. You see, I know everything," she said. Boom just lifted his brows, disbeliever, instead of asking something else. "Whatever is or has been a fact in this world I know it and it's compulsory to me to answer every question for which I have an answer. It can't be helped and it's very embarrassing, shall you ask something I hold private I must answer your question no matter what it is. So I'm begging you to restrain from asking me anything or to direct your questions to your niece. That way I am not obligated to say a word."

Regina nodded and led her to the living room, squeezing her hand and jumping all the way throught. There were just too many thing she wanted to speak with Evelyn, and not just what had been going on in her life, but in Evelyn's too. Boom followed them, though he maintained his distance and once the two girls were sitting, he just leaned over the threshold and listened to the conversation.

"You completely disappeared. You will tell me what happened," Regina said. Evelyn had been her nanny for five years before she was left in the orphanage so she had learnt at an early age how to avoid making questions to her but still letting Evelyn know what Regina wanted to talk about.

"I know, and trust me I never wanted to leave, but your mother...," the sentence was cut off and Evelyn gazed down for a second. "I think it's better if I start from the beginning. You were too young back then and your parents made it completely clear from the start that I wasn't to say anything about their work to you..."

"Hold on a second. You worked for my brother and his wife?" Boom _asked_, to Evelyn's much displease.

"I managed to hide my power to my family, my father is a lord of the realm and heroes and villains don't quite mix up with the gentry. I figured he wouldn't be pleased if he found out and he wasn't. He disowned me when I was seventeen. I fled the country and came here, but I was desperate for a job. I was also angry at my father for pushing me aside and hence I hated the world. In my rush I turned to the wrong people and became the nanny and tutor of Rockshiver and Mindreign's little girl," she grabbed Regina's hand and smiled kindly to her.

"So you're a villainess," Boom stated, quick to jump to conclusions.

"I admit at the time it seamed like the right choice, but I never really got to commit any crime. All I did was taking good care of Gigi lass over here."

Regina smiled tenderly at the pet name that brought back so many good memories, even though it was a ridiculous name and she'd always hated it.

"She was always very good to me," Regina assured glancing at her uncle. "I missed her a lot."

He shrugged, allowing Evelyn to continue her story.

"As I was saying, your parents didn't want you aware of their business, and I was fine with it, quite agreed with them myself in that regard. But then I had access to their computers and I could hear them talking about their plans. I always knew they wanted to take over the world and create some sort of kingdom where they'd reign..."

"Yes, my mother often told me about that. She said she had named me _Regina_ because one day I'd be queen of the world and she believed I should have a strong, queen-like name. She always resented her own mother for naming her _Wendy_," Regina made an ugly face remembering, "She used to say it made her sound weak. I don't think my father ever called her by her first name; he always used Mindreign."

Evelyn nodded, she had noticed that in the couple as well. "I managed to keep myself and you also out of their business, I really didn't care if they did actually found a way to take over the world, I only cared for your safety and your proper upbringing," at this point, Boom snorted, aparently convinced there was no way a former villainess wannabe could care for a child. It cost him a scowl from his niece and a more verbal reaction from Evelyn. "Kindly restrain yourself of intervening in such a way. You do not know me, therefore you are not in the right to judge my actions so belligerently. As I was saying," she turned back to Regina. "I was worried sick about what might happen to you shall your parents succeed or be caught..."

"Never occured to you she had family other that those sociopaths?" Boom asked disdainfully.

"I wish I had know she had caring relatives. I would've brought her right to you when I learnt what I learned."

"What?" so eager to know what might have brought such fear to Evelyn that Regina didn't realized she had slipped a question to her.

"They had an accomplice. I don't recall meeting him and I never learnt his name either. But I do know that your parents' plan was made around him."

"He was the central piece," Regina stated.

"Yes," Evelyn moved awkwardly on her seat. "I think they failed because he walked out on them at the last minute. You see, I had access to their files and computers... The original plan wasn't to take hostage the members of the Senate, that was just the ugly result of despair. They really meant to make them ill."

That statement broguht silence as Regina asimilated what that meant. Boom was a little less patient. "What's that mean, ill?"

"Ill, Mr. Boomowski, whatever do you think I might mean by saying that?" again calmly, Evelyn rejoined. Regina remembered just what a tight leash Evelyn held her temper on; she was not the type to shout and get furious to make her point. "Their accomplice was the main key, aparently he was able to produce whatever kind of illness in everybody. They intended to unleash the Black Death, the Bubonic Plague, Typhus, Influenza, Cholera, Avian Flu, Smallpox, Ebola Fever, Yellow Fever, Rubeola, the list was endless! Whatever illness you might think about they were about to bring it to the world."

"But that would've killed a lot of people. What were they thinking, ruling an empty planet?" Boom put in ironically.

"I would be the first to agree with you, but I'm afraid their accomplice was not only able to cause the disease, but to make it go away just like that," She said shaking her head.

"And so the world would be under their control," Regina added. "Every president around the globe would be forced to give in as long as the people is cured, that only if each country's leader wasn't dead by then. But something went wrong, I assume."

"Their accomplice walked away in the brick of time just when they were about o hit on the President and the senators. Your parent's panicked and tried their best, but as you well know they were out-numbered by the heroes. Your mother managed to scape, but your father blew himseld up along with everyone in a 10 yard radium with some explosives he'd taken just in case. If my memory serves," she turned to Boom, still leaning on the wall, "You came along the heroes party, right?"

"Yes," he said sharply as his gaze darkened over Evelyn. "And my girlfriend was killed during the explosion you so breezely mention."

"Girlfriend?" Regina cried out loud but was utterly ignored by both Boom and Evelyn.

"I'm sorry I blurted it out like that. I wasn't aware you were romantically involved with Wildkat," Evelyn went on wholeheartedly.

"My darling brother knew," he let the deep resentment over his brother drench his words.

"Most likely."

Quick to change the subject for her uncle's sake, Regina said, "But you were gone by then. I remember that happening about a week after you left."

"Yes, when I found out what they were up to I confronted them, it was such a dangerous plan. For some reason I was sure they wouldn't succeed... Don't know why, I just told them it wasn't going to work and that your life would be at stake too. They wouldn't hear a word about it though, they said you were going to be completely immune to the diseases, that's how in control their accomplice was on his powers."

"And then you left."

"No, I threaten them saying I would take you away with me, should they be caught. They didn't like it one bit," Evelyn gave the young girl a sad smile. "Mindreign went ballistic. Rockshiver even stated hotly that he'd tear me apart limb by limb, and he wasn't exactly an emotional chap. Eventually they decided they needn't kill me, just keep me away, so your mother commanded me to go to Nepal and stay there."

Uncle and niece gaped at her. "Are you serious?" Regina slipped again and asked.

"Quite so," she nodded. "Once there, however, I was imprisoned for I had no papers with me. So I spent three years in a Nepalese jail. The warden died or retired some two years after I arrived and the one who replaced him fancy me so I managed to get away when he called me to his office one night and hid in the outsides of the town. I asked around where could I find a super hero over there but I got little feed-back, being foreign and all. The heroes did find me however, they were curious to know the young lady asking around for them. After I told them about my dilemma they helped me out of Nepal and back to America. I tried to find you here but you had already left your foster parents' custody and you kept your trace well hidden."

Regina seamed quite proud of that fact, "Thank you. I tried very hard."

Boom snorted at her comment. "Wish you'd be more sloppy. We would've found you right away."

"Oh, Eve, I'm so happy you're here!" Regina hugged the older woman.

"Me too, m'dear."

"Can she stay here with us Boom?" she turned to her uncle with a huge grin in her face and happy tears in her eyes.

Boom, who didn't seam at all excited to have a former villainess living under his roof, just stared at her as if his niece had completely lost her mind, then pinned Regina with one of his darkest frowns. "Hell, no."

"Oh, please...!" she pleaded.

"You are in no terms to ask for things right now, Missy. I'm still very angry at you for what happened last night."

"What happened last night?" Evelyn asked Regina, suddenly adamant.

But Boom cut in before she could say a single word to help her cause.

"She was here alone with a boy while I was chaperoning the dance she managed to sneak out of. _And_, she was drunk."

"Regina! That is absolutely terrible! I did not raise you that way!" she turned to Boom. "I suppose you've grounded her?"

"I was about to when you showed up in our door step."

"Well, let her have it now. This cannot go unpunished," she nodded in agreement. "And you, young lady, better learn your lesson."

Amazing how quickly you can turn from being sky high happy to miserable. And she now had _two_ grown-ups worrying her very step.

* * *

"If you laugh, I'm going to put my flaming fist in your mouth."

Will didn't laugh, but he was certainly grinning. "You think that would stop me?"

"It would make it difficult for you to continue," Warren promised.

It was taking Will a lot of his strength not to laugh as he wanted to right now. He had also tried to keep a straight face but he had to give it up, it was so God damned funny to see Warren like this. After all it wasn't every day that you saw him madly jealous. Of course, that hadn't been the first moment of hilarity of the day, and it was early in the morning.

He hadn't been able to stop the laughter out of his mouth when Warren announced he was asking Regina Boomowski out on a date –a date, for heaven's sake, not just a ride in the back seat of his car!-. Warren hadn't appreciated it. He was even prone to roast his friend's red and white T-shirt, had Layla not showed up next to them just then. Naturally, she asked why was her boyfriend almost choking in his own laughter and that was the only moment Will actually stopped laughing to enlighten her. Warren had expected her to be a little more serious about it than Will, especially considering how much she cared about him. He had been wrong though. She'd found it just as funny as Will did.

"C'mon, man, stop it. Is not funny any more," Warren said.

"'Course it is! You just don't see it."

But he could definitely see something, standing as they were next to Will's locker, facing the merry couple holding hands, whispering to each other's ears, laughing over their private jokes, brushing their lips whenever a teacher wasn't around. The turmoil fo emotions inside Warren was so new to him, not to say unexpected, that they could be easily confused by jealousy. But he wasn't jealous, no, he was angry. No, he wasn't angry, he was pissed off! He had been joking every time he called her a slut, he really was, but now he had to give that some serious thought. He just couldn't see how things went from her being mad at Culpepper and kissing him so passionately in her front door to ignore him completely and just stand there with Culpepper as if they were the most happy couple at school. Warren had left her two days ago and everything seamed to have been more than fine between

them; what is more, after giving it some serious thought he was willing to put all of his restrictions behind and ask her out that very same day, only to find her already taken.

His first thought after kissing Regina after Homecoming was that it was going to be a living hell to avoid her henceforth. Said thought had hunted him for the rest of the night, keeping him from sleep, rolling in his bed non stop. But then, as he woke up after few hours of sleep, it occured to him that maybe it wasn't that bad. After all, Regina had asked him to kiss her so she must withold some sort of feelings towards him, right? If so, he could at least make an effort and see where that might lead to. So convinced he was that he had decided to aks her out, and was actually looking forward to do so. He hadn't even worried about Coach Boomer, and he could have been some serious complication. But he was determined. And how quickly had his hopes crumbled.

He should have seen it comming, he was surprised he didn't. It had happened before so why would this time be any different? Just because Regina seamed so odd and different to the other girls, but in a cute way? The last time he had also struggled to fight the atraction he'd felt for that other girl, considering the circumstances under they'd met, until he finally decided to do something about it. And what had happened? She had run to the arms of another guy.

He had started to fall for her, or at least he thought so, so it had been real tough to see them together day after day and pretend like he didn't die every time a little bit. However, time did heal his wounds, so now she was practically forgotten. But then again, it had been diferent with her than with Regina. The other girl had never known how he'd felt –nor would she ever, if he could help it- but Regina had known something was going on that night. And what was worst, he'd known too that she corresponded some of his feelings. So what the Hell was she doing with Culpepper?

He had never felt so betrayed before, and even if it was the last thing he'd ever do, she was going to pay it back. Revenge aside, it was going to be hell for him, but he'd make sure she wouldn't enjoy herself either.

Will must've guessed what he was about to do, or maybe it was the telling fact that Warren had strolled five good steps to were Regina and Colin were standing with a look on his face that promised lots of pain for them, but he was suddenly grabbed by Will, who didn't have the tiniest problem in using all his strength to keep him from doing something he would regret later. He didn't just stop him before Warren could fulfil his wishes, but also yanked him inside an empty classroom and closed the door behind them. Warren knew that short of getting violent with his best friend, there was no way he was going to just walk out of the room until Will had his say, so he leaned on the teacher's desk, dropped his bag heavily on the floor, crossed his arms over his chest and fixated his eyes on his friend's, making sure every look of his showed just how little he appreciated whatever was about to come out of Will's mouth.

Will, on the other hand, had to struggle real hard to keep the grin out of his face, though succeeding remakably. Warren was all too touchy to put him under test just yet. Instead, Will took a leaf of his book and leaned on the closed door.

"D'you think that what you were just about to do was wise?" he asked mildly.

"I wasn't going to do anything," he replied dryly.

"Listen, I'm Ok with whatever you wanna do, really. I might be laughing my ass off but that doesn't mean I'm cool with what she did," Will cut in impatiently. "B'sides, I know you, and I know all you want to do right now is to reduce Regina Boomowski to tears or something like that. So go and do it. Just do it when she's on her own. Think about it," he went on. "You go now when she's with her boyfriend, you tell her whatever you have in mind and what happens next? Culpepper is going to be _thrilled_to know she chose him over you, Regina won't be anywhere near the digree of regret you want her to be and you, my dear friend, will be the one embarrassed. You'll end up being their private joke with no punch line. And that only till the whole school knows about it, and they _will_ know..."

"I get the point," Warren scowled.

"And if you're in for that sort of stuff, you can have so much more fun by doing whatever you're gonna do privately. That is, of course, if she keeps her mouth shut."

"That can be arranged."

"See? All's better now!" Will opened the door and Warren left the room behind him. "So, what do you have in mind?"

Warren's smirk was all he needed to know.

* * *

_Just look at her, so calm, doing her business like nothing happened._

He had waited till the end of the day, when he knew he'd find her on the Mad Science Lab, alone. It hadn't been that difficult, considering he spent the whole day brooding his anger and planning for his revenge; he decided she deserved to feel very bad and regret she hadn't given him a chance, wonder how things would be if she now were with him instead of Culpepper, to actually consider dumping that douche bag, so then he would gladly turn his back on her just like she had. It was easy enough, he had no tender feeling for her anymore. Regina had managed to do what no one else after that other girl had been able to do: to make him want more. But that had little importance now; she had played with him, and knowingly. Payback really was a bitch, and was soon to find that out.

"You know, I can't believe I fell for that one," he said suddenly, startling her. He grinned mentally.

"What...?"

"But then again, you were supposed to be drunk, and my experience with drunk people is that they tend to be honest," he continued, moving closer to her, leaving his previous spot at the door.

"You're gonna have to develop that thought cuz I have no idea what you're..."

"So that leave us only one option and that is that you weren't really drunk, were you?" he wasn't asking, and he had managed to corner her against Mr. Medulla's desk, leaning all too close to her and keeping her from slipping away with his arms over the desk on both her sides.

"Warren, step back," Regina stuttered.

"Oh, but you don't really mean that, Reg," he grinned sensually. "You see, I know now. You don't have to pretend any more."

"Seriously, I don't know what you're talking about!" her heart ponding in her chest, her nose only inches away from Warren's, she was plainly hysterical.

His left brow rose up as he half smiled. "If you just wanted a ride in the back seat of my car you should've just asked. You didn't have to came up with that whole never-been-kissed crap. Actually, that was kinda mood killer. We could've done more than kissing if you hadn't lied to me."

Regina felt the blush redding her face, incapable to believe what she was listening. The bastard! He was back to insulting her! And she couldn't seam to find anything to shoot back!

"It's not too late, you know," he leaned forward to say lowly into her ear, his soft voice a guttural sound that gave her shivers and for a moment she couldn't think. "We're all alone," he smelled her auburn hair and leaned back so he could see into her gray eyes. "All you gotta do is ask,"His fingers moved from her chin –she hadn't even noticed they were there, so gentle was his touch- up across her cheek. Regina held her breath, waiting for him to kiss her, but he only gazed into her eyes, waiting. Finally, she leaned to brush her lips against his.

But just as she did so, she heard him chuckle, a triumphant sound that told her something was wrong. At the moment, she felt cold as he stepped back, realizing just then that his body heat had been warming her up as he cornered her. And the look of his face. God, she'd never seen him like that, so menacing.

"Guess that proves me right," he stated.

"What?" she said curtly.

"You are a slut."

He had given her the insult many times before, but this time, somehow, it felt worse, just as bad as he leaving her side after being so close.

"You have a boyfriend," he continued. "And yet you were more than willing to do more than kissing me."

Regina's heart sank down in her belly, realizing that by kissing him she would be _asking_ to do what they hadn't got to do that night after Homecoming. And then it hit her: he didn't want her, it was all for her benefit. All he cared was to make his point and insult her as meanly as possible.

"Now that we've settled that matter, what about that ride?" he reverted to sensual, but she wasn't going to buy it again.

"Shut up! You think this is a game or something?" she let her temper show.

Warren said nothing, just smirked. He was peacock-proud of himself, the bastard, and flaunting it with his usual male arrogance.

"I wouldn't call it a game, but it does involve certain playing..." he was moving closer. _Oh, God, make him stop!_, Regina pleaded. "C'mon, you want it, I want it. And you can stop with the maidenly blushes now. I told you I didn't buy it."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Just thought you might wanna pick up where we left off the other night."

"Well, I don't!" she squeeked, well knowing he wouldn't believe her when she didn't even believe it. "I'm with Colin now."

"I know."

And just then she saw what lay under the surface of Warren's pretended inscrutability. Anger, and lots of.

"Are you... jealous?"

"Of him being your boyfriend? Please, I wouldn't wish that fate to my worst enemy," he snorted as derogatorily as he could manage, and Regina didn't know whether he was telling the truth or just for her benefit. "Don't be thinking there's anything more than just lust between you and I, Reg."

Did he absolutely have to put that way, like she was nothing more than just an object?

"I think you're confused, Sparky. Lust is far from my mind when I think of you," Regina scorned the best she could.

"But you _do_ think of me," he grinned.

Now he was taunting her, rubbing it in. Her teeth slammed together, her fingers curling into fists on her hips. Her emotions had found their channel. Fury. But he wasn't finished. He had to go for blood.

"So, did Colin buy that pretense of you being as innocent as you said?"

_Great, now I'm a__ hooker _and_ a liar too._

"Why wouldn't he?" Regina smiles and lied. "After all, it didn't cross your mind for even a second that I was lying, and you are an all mighty omni-linguist," she added matter-of-factly. "Why don't you just say it? You're jealous cuz I'm giving Colin more than I'll ever be giving you."

There was the anger again, flamming in his chocolate eyes, making them darker and darker, almost getting black.

"How exactly did that happen? I'm actually interested."

"He came over after you left."

"'Course, and you being how you are, welcomed him into your house in the middle of the night with your arms outstretched," he said irritably.

"What else could I do?" Regina gritted out. "You said it yourself. I'm a life-long slut."

"I never said life-long," Warren clarified mildly. "Those are your words."

"Will you stop playing with me? None of this is my fault. You were the one who left that night. If you were somewhat interested in continuin whatever we started you should have said something right then."

"Would that have made a diference?"

Hateful, hateful man, how dared he ask her that after being so mean to her just minutes ago? And look at him, with features gone blank, and a tenseness in his wide shoulders and chest, as if her answer actually held some significance for him. More than likely he had some brilliant comeback ready and waiting for her yes that he would be disappointed to waste. "I guess we'll never know," she said dryly, determined to let him see as much of her as he was letting her see of himself.

And Warren answer was as dispassionate as a weather comment might have been. "If you say so..." he headed to the door. Regina sighed in relief to see him leave, she had almost expected one last nasty comment from him.

But luck really didn't seam to be on her side that day, and she knew so as he turned around and pinned her on the spot with one of his darkest scowls.

"This isn't over, Dockside Doxy."

**What do you think? Please leave a rewiev!**


	12. Crying, for crying out loud

**Hi everybody! I want to thank you one more time for the amazing reviews I got for last chapter, and to remind you that I will answer whatever question you have concerning this fic, if possible.**

**You're going to see a new side of Regina on this chapter, I hope I pulled it off okay, it was kida hard to express what she was feeling.**

**Anyway, read, enjoy and, please, review!**

Chapter twelve: Crying, for crying out loud.

Regina sat slumped in the seat next to the window that used to be Mike's regular place at English – Comic Comprehension, pensively watching the cotton-like clouds making animals and other kind of forms over the light blue sky. She'd pulled him to her former seat –next to his- claiming she was having a bad day and needed the soothing view to calm down. But it wasn't really a bad day she was having, more like a couple of bad weeks. She heard the classroom door open, then footsteps crossing the room, but she wasn't interested in who was coming late for class. After all, he hadn't come to school at all that day.

She wasn't speaking to Warren Peace, and hadn't said more than two words to him since that day three weeks ago when he had cornered her at the Mad Science Lab. And that wasn't even the worst of it that day. No, he had totally insulted her too.

It was possible that Warren knew by now that he'd behaved like a complete asshole that day and she hated him now. But if he didn't, he wasn't going to hear it from her, since she was never talking to him again. And the blasted man didn't even care. "Sulking, Regina?" he'd remarked when he noticed the day after the Lab incident when he sat behind her during Hero Ethics and had started to sing _Roxanne_ in a low voice so no one would hear him but her. "Suit yourself. You're too messed up after all..."

That had really hurt, especially since she didn't doubt for a moment that he sincerely meant it. And he must have meant it, since he hadn't once tried to coax her into talking to him, arguing with him, or anything else. They often crossed on the halls and they shared a great deal of classes but they did everything possible to ignore each other. He succeeded admirably, but she had found, much to her displeasure, that when he was there, he was there. At least her senses knew it, going a little crazy every time he was near. That was the worst of the whole thing. She was mad, really mad, and yet her heart double beat whenever she saw him and the tight nod on her belly would only lessen when and if he looked at her or say something. Which, by the way, hadn't happen just yet.

And as if she weren't knee deep in that turmoil of emotions, she also had to keep all that from Boom, her friends and Colin. Especially from Colin.

"You're late, Mr. Peace... What happened to your arm?" Miss Clark said slightly worried.

Regina finally turned her head from the window to face the class and quickly found the pyro she was looking for. And he was there, standing tall at 6.1 feet, his usual inscrutable face not letting on nothing concerning him, except maybe the dark circles under his eyes and a minor bruise on his jaw. His right arm, Regina noticed, was bandaged and in a sling.

"Car accident," he groaned.

She bit her lip. He sounded as if he were in pain. She should be glad, but for some reason she wasn't. For some reason she had an urge to ... to what? Soothe his hurt? Had she gone absolutely mad? That emotion was completely inappropriate when concerning Warren Peace! Had he cared when he had hurt her? No! So why, oh why was she feeling bad for him?

"I hope everybody's all right?" the teacher asked carefully.

"The dog that jumped in front of my car is gonna have to go through re-hab but other than that..."

"Oh. Well, have a seat Mr. Peace. And don't worry about today's homework," she smiled and winked at him. "You can bring it for next class."

_There you go, the urge to comfort replaced by anger __just like that!_ Regina thought as she turned her head back to the window. Miss Clark had given her an F early in the class when she didn't bring her homework.

* * *

"Boom, please! I swear I'll be in my best behaviour!"

"My word is final, Reggie. You're still grounded."

"Fine! I'll just stay here while all my friends go out and have the time of their lives!" Regina stood up abruptly from the chair she was sitting in and threw her napkin over the plate still full with the roast biff and vegetables they'd been having for dinner.

She stormed out of the dining room, leaving one infuriated Boom and one blank featured Evelyn. She was so pissed off right now she didn't even care that that very same behaviour wasn't what was going to lead her uncle into melting the tight nod of ice around his heart, swallow his pride and let her go out on Halloween with Colin, Megan and the guys.

She'd been very surprised that same week when she learned that for Halloween the whole school dressed 's right, the principal would pick a theme and every single Sky High student had to dress up accordingly to said theme. She had thought of it ridiculous at first, but then saw how excited everybody was.

"We're supposed to be heroes or villains," Colin had explained when she told him she found it odd that the students wouldn't refuse to wear costumes for school. "Our kind loves to dress up."

Of course, hero or villain outfits were strictly forbidden. They didn't want to draw _too _much attention to the civilians that might cross path with the students in their way to the flying bus stop.

The collective excitement had finally got to her and she was now anxious herself to put on her costume and spend the entire day wearing it. Besides, it was bound to be hilarious to see her friends dressed up as well, and she could only imagine the kind of cynical, yet funny, remarks Mike would have about the other student's outfits. This year, the selected theme was the Middle Ages, more specifically, the 12th century. The following day was bound to be fun, if only Boom would let her continue the celebration outsideof the school with her friends. But, of course, she should have seen it coming, as if she hadn't just have the worst three weeks of her life.

She might pretend like nothing had happened between she and Warren that day in the lab and act as if she didn't spent a large amount of time each day thinking about him, but she had to admit that whatevet he was after that day, he sure had managed to make her wonder. Constantly.

Had she made the right choice? Should she have waited to talk to Warren and see what he had to say before she committed to Colin? Would he make a good boyfriend? Does all that mean that Colin is not a good boyfriend?

But he was, really. Colin was funny, kind, he madeher laugh, he was a good kisser, she liked to talk to him... yet she couldn't help but wonder. And she wasn't blind, either. She and Colin never really spent much time alone; they only met at school thanks to Boom's excessive punishment, and then were always surrounded by people or friends or rushing to class or watched closely by Boom or Mr. Medulla, who Boom had enlisted to havea tighter hold on his niece and was not only to keep an eye on her, no, he also make sure she stayed after class to clean up the mess in the Mad Lab, get early to school to prepare the things he'd need for the day, and calling her during break time to help him around withwhatever he was whining about at the moment. And Colin wasn't having a blasted time either. Withthe excuse of preparing for the next football game Boom had the entire team training the breath out of them, and Colin being the quarterback was having a especially hard time. All in all, she saw Warren more that she saw Colin, and she didn't see Warren much at all.

But that was going to change soon, she said to herself. Boom couldn't keep her grounded for much longer and then she'll have all the time in the world to explore her new relationship with Colin. And, boy, that was scary.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts and soon afterward the door opened and Evelyn walked in the bedroom. She had been coming to dinner every night since she appeared in theirthreshold, a company much appreciated for she always had some story about the years she'd been away to keep the conversation flowing. Boom hadn't been pleased at the beginning, mostly because he still thought of her as a former villainess, but after a week or so he had stopped snorting at her every statement and growling as an answer for whatever question Eve might have. Coming from Boom is was as close as you could get from a worm welcoming.

"That went remarkably well," Evelyn said as she sat on the stool in front of her vanity.

"You've never been keen on sarcasm, Eve, please don't use it on me now," from under the pillow that she'd been pressing against her face came Regina's voice. She removed it and sat up on the middle of the bed. "What did he said?"

"That you're grounded, and with reason."

"I said I was sorry, I promised I wouldn't do it again and I've been doing his say for the past three weeks, how much longer do I have to put up with it?" she sighed. "Can't you do something?"

"Me? Talk to your uncle?" Evelyn laughed at the idea. "He'd probably just boom me away and tell me not to interfere."

"Still, you could tell him I'll spend the night with you tomorrow in your hotel. I can go out with my friends and be back at whatever hour you decide. He doesn't have to know I went out," Regina exposed as hope started to build inside of her.

"You know I'd never do anything to challenge your unle's authority over you," Eve reminded her seriously. "I won't do such thing, Reinie."

Her pet name had been changed weeks ago, when Evelyn decided that "Gigi lass" was too childish for Regina's age. Boom had suggested she'd call her Reggie like everyone else did, but Evelyn was a very special one with names, liked to be original about them. A clear example of that was that she refused to call her uncle "Boom", "Coach Boomer" or "Mr. Boomowski". Instead, she went by the one name he would prefer she wouldn't: Terrance.

"However," Evelyn went on. "I did speak to him."

"And...?"

"I might have mentioned how well you've behaved for the past weeks and what a responsible girl you are."

"So I'm not grounded anymore?" Regina grinned.

"Hold on, I'm not finished just yet. His trust over you has weakened after Homecoming, so you need to earn it back. you will be allowed to go out tomorrow, but you'll be back at eleven o'clock and you are absolutely forbidden to ridein a car witha boy, specially not with Colin," she exposed. "Oh, and don't even think about drinking, having sex or using any kind of drugs, do you hear me?"

The shock was so great Regina couldn't speak for a whole minute. "I'm not having sex,"she finaly stated. "And I wouldn't do drugs neither. I'm not stupid."

"Well, let's just keep it that way."

"So, if I'm not allowed to go in Colin's car on any of the guys, does that mean I get to take the car?" Regina said excitedly.

"No. I'll arrange for my chofer to drive you there and pick you up at the arranged time."

It was gong to be one tightly restrained outing, but she'd take what she got. It was certainly better than staying home on a Friday night.

* * *

She was a vision. The form-fitting cerulean bliaut with flaring skirt and loose bell-shaped sleeves that were shorter in the front to reveal the closely fitted long sleeves of her undertunic, a bright blue, revealed also beneath the deep V of the bliaut's neckline and at the sides where the gown was left open up to her thighs made her look out of time, as if she'd just appeared in Sky High by the work of a medieval wizard. Her auburn hairwas parted in the centre and hung down in two long braids over her shoulders, wrapped tightly with silvery ribbon, the short white headdress covering little. She also had a long silver belt looped around her tiny waist and at the minute he saw her, Warren wanted to torch the whole school. How dare she leave her house looking like that? Wasn't she aware that the bliaut was _too_tight, that the V neck, even though the blue chemise under it covered her bosom up to the collar bone, did nothing but enhance her already _too_ large breast? Or that the slight, yet nonetheless noticeably enticing movement of her hips was _too_ much for him to take it? Was she insane?

And her face, God, she looked adorable withthe braids and the white headdress. Her gray eyes smiled all day long as she laughed withher friends, the boyfriend and his two buddies dressed as knights, with knee length tunics, chaucersand leather boots, with the chainmailsover the tunics, swords hanging from belts on the hips and shields. Her friend, Megan, was also withthem, her outfit similar to Regina's except hers was light yellow with a golden mantle over it and her hair was loose and covered by a transparent piece of headdress.

The whole school had dressed up, and if you could say one good thing about Sky High's students it was that they were really meticulous when dressing up for Halloween. It probably had a lot to do with being prepared to be heroes, or villains according to how rotten their minds were; but nonetheless, super people were supposed to wear a costume that could hide their true identity so each and one of them kind of mastered the art of wearing a disguise. There were knights, noble men, Ladys, kings, queens, princes, princesses, commoners, monks, even a few Popes. Some had evn taken into consideration depolitical context at the time, so there were crusaders, Saracens, Arabian princesses, and Warren could've swore he saw a remarkable outfit of the Leper King of Jerusalem. He himself had been one the last, wearing a white knee lengthtunic with a red Greek crux in the middle of it to resemble a Temple knight, along all the other necessities, such as the chaucers, leather boots, the chainmail under the tunic and the required armament.

"If you don't stop with the doom and gloom, I'll never speak to you again," Will threatened.

"You promise?" Warren growled back.

"First you want to roast her alive, then you want to ignore her, and now you want to fu..."

"Language, Will," Layla next to him admonished.

"F-f-f- hum," he closed his eyes and frowned. "Sorry, I can't thing of any other word to put it nicely."

"How'bout we just say he has mixed emotions towards her?" his girlfriend suggested sweetly.

"That sounds just great," he said as he leaned to plant a light kiss on her lips, forgetting for the moment the current topic of conversation.

Warren waited, after all he wasn't prone to drive his friend away from his girlfriend when they obviously didn't want to, but a person can only take _so_ much.

"Guys, are you kidding me?"

"Sorry. Sorry," he repeated, the last very, very lowly as if he were talking to a un-tamed animal. "Let's focus on you for now."

"What do _you_ want to do?" Layla asked kindly.

"I want to choke Colin Culpepper."

"Ok, and what about Reggie?"

"I want to choke her too."

"Right," Will intervened and winked at his best friend. "_Choke _her, a word I didn't know for F her," he didn't say that word either, out of respect of his girlfriend perhaps, but only enphasize the sound of the F.

"I don't want to F her," Warren stated.

"Well, whatever it is you want to do with her, it certainly isn't _choking_ her..."

"Did you know Richard The Lionheartwas gay?" Warren bursted out angrily.

Now Will was speechless; jaw-dropped, wide-eyed speechless. That was his very costume, Richard The Lionheart, and had been telling so to whoever might ask.

"But I'm here withmy bride," he said lowly, shaking his head to Layla next to him dressed like Berengaria of Navarre.

"Still gay," Warren smirked. "And a big one."

"Don't you dare change the subject," Layla rejoined. "Don't listen to him, honey," she said to a very disturbed Will. "And you," she then directed her hazel eyes to Warren "need to talk to her. If you don't, I will. And I'll bring him along. If you think you've seen him at his nastiest, wait to you hear what he'll say to her after you comment about his costume."

Warren could've cheerfully killed Layla just then.

* * *

But talking to Regina wasn't as easy as you might think. She was always surrounded by her friends or under the intensive glare of her uncle, or at the Mad Lab with Mr. Medulla. And there was no telling whether she'd stay after class that day, either. So that brought the question, how to talk to Regina when no one was around?

He first thought of kidnapping her and lock himself with her in the janitor's closet to havethe chat; he even believed it could work wonderfully, until he began thinking of other activities he would like to do withRegina locked in the janitor's closet. The temptation was enough for Warren to decidethat he couldn't be withher alone in the same room. It was physically impossible. Thus, his situation had just gotten trickier: he needed to talk to her alone, but not be alone with her.

He finally saw his chance when at History class. Mr. Flahertywas known to the student body as the teacher who really enjoyed giving detention, he even handed it out like candy on Halloween –which was ironical considering Warren's situation-. He had to enlist Zach's help though, if only to create a distraction to whomever might be withher. It was very easy, and quick. Before the bell rang, and seeing Regina lurking next to the classroom door with Megan, Warren and Zach approached them from theirback, inconspicuously so they wouldn't notice them, and at Warren's affirmative nod, Zach ran hard into Megan and almost madethem bothfall face to the floor. He babbled some apology while helping her up and getting her stuff, giving Warren time enough to grab Regina by the wrist with his good arm, yank her into the classroom which he knew was completely empty except for Mr. Flaherty, slammed the door after them and before Regina could react and actually utter a word he pressed his lips against hers and pinned her with his body to the wall.

After a first moment of confusion, Regina gavein to the ferocious kiss, which she demonstrated by rounding Warren's neck withher hands, pressing a little more to him and participating in a very active way in the kiss. If they had been truly alone, Warren would've lost it.

"Ehem, ehem," was heard from behind the teachers desk. Warren broke the embrace, sparing a quick smirk for Regina, who seamed not confused, but utterly perplexed and horrorized to find out they weren't alone. "Detention, Mr. Peace, Miss Boomowski. My classroom is no place for making out."

"Sorry, sir," Warren said not the least bit disturbed and walked out through the door, leaving Regina slammed to the wall, red-faced, anger raising, and embarrassed beyond belief.

Her discomfort was understandable, especially because she, and not Warren because he had other class, was now forced to spend the next hour taking a class by the same teacher who had not only grounded her, but worst, witnessed her passionate answer to Warren's kissing.

* * *

Smugly walking down the hall, Warren felt utterly confused as an invisible force pushed him to a classroom closed door, which flew open driven by the very same force that was in control of him limbs. The door didn't close, though; at least not until Regina walked through it with her eyes like cold steel and every demeanor in her indicating she was really pissed off.

"What the hell was that for?!" Regina inquired angrily as she yanked the headdress off her head and started wringing it angrily.

He stared at her with the most inscrutable face she'd ever seen him wear. "Sorry?"

"That'd better be an apology!"

"Let me re-phrase then," Arched brow, Warren conceded. "What are you talking about?"

"You know damn well what I'm talking about!" she shrieked, frustrated withhis attitude. "You yanked me into a classroom, an occupied classroom may I add, and kissed me. I demand to know why."

"I was bored," he lied. "I felt like making out and you were the first available girl I crossed with. It looked like a good idea."

"It was not a good idea, and I am not available!" Regina argued. "When are going to get it?"

"When you stop kissing me back," and like that, out of no where, he smiled, turned sensual and kissed her again.

This time, however, Regina was beyond mad. She punched his slinged arm with all her might, which she knew would bring enough pain for him to stop; indeed, Warren cried in pain and back off, his eyes glowing in anger.

"You punched my arm!" he complain. Regina smirked and then slapped him in the face. "And you slapped me!"

"Be thankful I'm not making you jump off the edge of the school!"

With that last threat she stormed off the empty classroom, slamming the door closed. Still in pain, but considerably satisfied with himself, Warren smiled. He couldn't wait to see what would happen that afternoon in detention...

* * *

"You do realize I'm furious, don't you?" Regina whispered to Warren, sitting next to her in the library.

He grimaced. He had seen it in her face the moment he walked in detention and saw her sitting at the table far away away from the teacher. He had seen it when she saw him coming near her and finally sitting at her side. It was so obvious, he didn't need to see it. He felt it.

"I had also realized you weren't talking to me," he retorted in the same low tone of voice. "What made you change your mind?"

She took a frustrated breath and released the air through her pearly white teeth before answering him. "You kissed me. Why? And don't start saying you you were bored cuz I don't buy it."

"I needed to talk to you," Warren shrugged. "This seamed like the best place to do it," he added looking around.

"Couldn't you just asked for a moment to talk?"

"If I had asked I wouldn't have gotten the chance to kiss you," he remarked, to then add, "Twice."

"You're not supposed to kiss me. I have a boyfriend!"

"So? You think that ever stopped me before?"

"Whatever your methods are with other girls, do not apply them on me. I'm not interested," Regina stated, more to herself than him.

"That's not the impression I got from you earlier..." he smiled sensually at her and leaned closer.

"You... manipulative jerk!" she jerked her hand to her face. "What did you want to prove with you machiavelic plan?"

"That you still want me."

"Of course I want you!" she confessed, her eyes steel gray. Warren couldn't help the shiver that crossed his back as he heard her say that. "But the only thing that matters is that I'm not interested in doing anything about it."

They went silent for a while, didn't even look at each other's eyes.

"Everything is a game for you," Regina finally spoke. He could sense the hurt in her voice, and for the first time in weeks, Warren felt guilty. "You deliberately insult me, lure me into this games that in your own disturbing state of mind prove you right. You kiss me, make feel like I'm beautiful and then you're mean to me, you call me a slut and you actually mean it. And when I get mad you make _me _feel guilty, as if I'm to blame for everything that happened between us. I made a mistake when Colin came to my place after you left, I won't try to deny it or justify myself cuz you _are_ right at that point. But you're not right when you call me slut, you're not right when you think it's okay to use me for your own benefit, you're not right when you think I don't get to be mad at you, you're not right when you think I don't regret what happened that night," Regina looked away, hiding the tears that were starting to form in her eyes. "You're wrong if you think it doesn't hurt what you're doing to me."

"Reg..."

"Don't pretend you care," she half smiled and turned to face his dark gaze.

"I'll stop, I swear," he promised huskily.

"And that would only make it worst, cuz you could've realized what this was doing to me weeks back and stop then and you didn't, you... continued to make me feel miserable, on purpose," Regina shook her head. "You only care about yourself, how _you_ felt when I chose Colin, what a good time _you_ were having when you called me names and treated me like I was some object _you _could toy with. You never once considered what my feeling were. You just put me on the shelf of detestable sluts and didn't think you might be wrong," she laughed. "And here I am almost crying, for crying out loud, when I was furious just a moment ago."

"I'm serious, there'll be no more insults, no more luring, no nothing from me from now on. I am sorry."

"I don't really care anymore," Regina swallowed and looked down again, in the need to avoid his intense gaze. "And I'm sorry too."

* * *

"You okay, babe? You've been pretty quiet all night."

Those were precisely the words you didn't want to hear when you were trying your best to keep anybody from knowing what really was going through your head. Regina had been trying to act as normal as usual, but her sour mood would still show when she least expected it. And the worst part of it was that she was feeling so lousy she didn't even want to think and come up with a perfectly believable excuse for her current mood. So she just smiled to reassure her boyfriend next to her, and shook her head and cheerly as she could manage without looking psychotic, "Everything's fine. I'm just a little tired."

Regina leaned and kissed him lightly on the lips and then rest her head on his shoulder to make him know she was telling the truth. Colin bought it, duh, and slid his arm around her to keep her next to him.

"This place's pretty cool," he said to no one in particular.

"Except for the dude who's murdering "Californication" over and over again," Mike was quick to criticise the poor fellow up in the karaoke stage.

"I don't see you up there," Megan smirked at him.

"Nor will you ever," he snorted at her. "I don't pursue public humiliation."

"Like you need to," Kyle laughed. "Have you told the girls about the girl in the park just months ago...?"

"Shut your mouth or I'll shut it for you!"

Kyle just grinned, happy with the result for now both Regina and Megan were eager to know and unlikely to to accept a no for an answer.

"C'mon! Was it really embarrassing?"

"There is no way I'm telling you guys."

"Tell us," Regina commanded.

"Damn you Reggie!," Mike sighed, frustrated. "My father gave me this shirt, black and says "It's not Lupus" in capital white letters," he began, chagrined. "It's supposed to be some kind of in joke of this t.v. show, House M.D.."

"Yeah, I watch the show," Megan mentioned.

"Well, my dad is a fan and felt I should at least wear it once, so I did and that day Colin, Kyle and I went to the park to play ball."

"Can you please get to the good part?" Colin urged.

"The thing is, we ran into this hot chick I used to date so I went to say hi. We started talking and I noticed she was kinda cold and stiff so I thought well, screw her, her loss," Mike shrugged.

"Typical," Megan muttered.

"When we were parting I asked for her mother, who I had met a couple of times and really liked..."

"I remember you saying the lady was sick and that you broke up with the hot chick because you didn't want to deal with the mother's disease," Kyle remarked with an evil grin in his face.

"Thank you, buddy," Mike smiled back. "Anyway, she turns to leave and cries over her shoulder "she past three months ago"."

Colin and Kyle started laughing, obviously enjoying his friend's moment of shame. Regina and Megan didn't get the joke.

"So what's embarrassing with that?" Regina asked.

"Yeah, you were an insensitive jerk. What's new with that?"

"The girls mother had had Lupus, and he stood there with his "It's not Lupus" shirt for twenty minutes till he got why the hot chick wasn't throwing herself at him," Colin explained.

"Oh," Regina turned to Mike, who seamed very embarrassed, but clearly not finding it funny. "No one can be that unlucky."

"Why don't you tell the girls what happened when you got drunk after the final game last year?" Mike resentfully asked Kyle and then smirked.

"Sure. We'd been drinking our sorrows out with the team after we lost at the hotel and we got really hungry so we decided to go out and get some burgers," he started cheerfully, really enjoying telling the story he obviously found worth to be proud of. "We got to the burger place and even though it wasn't too warm inside I started to get hot, like _really_ hot, so I began stripping and crying "too much clothes" out loud."

"Me and some other guys thought he was doing it on purpose," Colin added half laughing. "We thought it was so funny, we stripped as well."

"And dancing," Mike rejoined, over by now with all the previous resentment. "I think they were playing _Dancing Queen_!"

"The security guards were quick to yank us out of there," Kyle went on.

"But by the time there were fifteen of us almost naked and only three guard so we kept getting past them and inside the restaurant!"

It took them a while to stop laughing and even when they thought they were done Kyle began singing Dancing Queen in a extremely high-pitched voice.

"What about you?" Colin look at Regina and then Megan. "Ever done something incredibly stupid and embarrassing?"

"I was in Florida visiting my grandma last summer," Megan begin almost unable to keep the laughter from her voice. "And it was hot so I was wearing this cotton skirt and some top. I had a bladder infection, so I had to go to the bathroom every ten freaking minutes. The thing is, my grandma sent to the store to get something, so I got out of the bathroom, left the house and walked to the centre which was about six blocks. All the way down I noticed that people would stare at my back and I was like so proud of my ass! I walked slowly, I smiled all the way down. And then I looked at myself in a window shop and I realized my cotton skirt was tucked into my underwear!" she then started laughing hard, along with the rest of the group. "And I was wearing a thong!"

"That's terrible," Mike managed to utter out the laughter. "At least my embarrassment was private...! Ouch!" he got a hit in the arm by Megan.

"Your turn, Reggie," Kyle incited.

"Well, there's the time when I went downstairs in my pajamas and the whole football team was in the living room staring at me," Regina said, remembering how embarrassed she'd felt.

"Yeah," Colin allowed with a short laugh.

"You're gonna have to come up with something better," Kyle said with a slight shook of his head.

"That's the most embarrassing thing I can think of," _considering how dull and boring my life has been for the past years._

"Then we'll have to do something about that," Megan got up, grabbed Regina by the hand and shoved her to the stage, which was currently empty.

"No way, I'm not gonna sing!" she cried realizing what Megan intended to do. She heard the guys laughing in their table, apparently getting the idea as well.

"C'mon! It'll be fun!" at her friends reluctant attitude, Megan offered "I'll sing with you."

Regina sighed. "Okay, let's do it."

The got on the stage after they chose the song and checked the lyrics, Regina desperately trying not to burst into a deep red blush and avoiding looking at Colin ad the guys. No sooner than that, she looked to a corner and froze in the spot.

Warren was there, and so were Layla, Will, Zach, Ethan and Purple Girl, all sitting in a table and apparently having a great time –just like Regina and her friends- until Will looked up to the stage, gaped at her and hit Warren in his right arm, the one in the sling. Whether he'd hit him too hard or Warren's arm was too sensitive to touch Regina didn't know; she only noticed the pain that crossed his features, the sudden anger toward his best friend and the moment when he was told she was up in the stage and then look up to see it with his own chocolate orbs. Their eyes crossed for a moment and Regina suddenly remembered why she'd been in such a sour mood that night.

"Stop staring at him," Megan next to her said. Regina didn't need to ask who she was talking about. "You're here to have fun. Don't let him ruin that too."

She nodded and looked at Colin instead, who blew a kiss at her. Regina smiled sweetly.

"We need to change the song," she suddenly determined.

"It's too late for that," Megan said, and it was true: the music had just began. "I'll go first."

Darling you got to let me know  
Should I stay or should I go?  
If you say that you are mine  
I'll be here 'til the end of time  
So you got to let me know  
Should I stay or should I go?

Megan really knew how to own the stage, Regina thought. A sexy smile in her lips, her body moving gracefully according to the song. She was so focused in watching what her friend was doing she almost lost her queue.

_It's always tease, tease, tease  
You're happy when I'm on my knees  
One day is fine, next day is black  
So if you want me off your back  
Well come on and let me know  
Should I stay or should I go?  
_

To go by the excited roar from the crowd and Colin's incredulous look that quickly turned sensual, Regina assumed she was doing it good, too. Still, she did not dare to look at Warren to see his reaction.

_**Should I stay or should I go now?  
Should I stay or should I go now?  
If I go there will be trouble  
An' if I stay it will be double  
So come on and let me know!**_

As the song started to slow down, Regina and Megan held each other by one hand and started doing some slow, sexy, improvised rock'n'roll steps, Megan singing the parts in Spanish because she knew more of the language than Regina.

_This indecision's bugging me_

Esta indecision me molesta

_If you don't want me, set me free_

Si no me quieres, librame

_Exactly who'm I'm supposed to be_

Dime que tengo que ser

_Don't you know which clothes even fit me?_

¿sabes que ropas me quedan?

_Come on and let me know_

Me tienes que decir

_Should I cool it or should I blow?_

¿me debo ir o quedarme?

_Split!_

Yo me enfrio o lo sufro

_Should I stay or should I go now?_

yo me enfrio o lo sufro

_Should I stay or should I go now?_

yo me enfrio o lo sufro

_If I go there will be trouble_

Si me voy - va a haber peligro

_And if I stay it will be double_

Si me quedo es doble

_So you gotta let me know_

Pero me tienes que decir

_Should I cool it or should I go?_

yo me enfrio o lo sufro

_Should I stay or should I go now?_

yo me enrio o lo sufro

_If I go there will be trouble_

Si me voy - va a haber peligro

_And if I stay it will be double_

Si me quedo es doble

_So you gotta let me know_

Pero me tienes que decir

_Should I stay or should I go?_

Looking back at that performance, Regina could hardly say it was embarrassing. In fact, the audience stood up to cheer them when they were done with the song. She always knew she could sing, but she didn't know she could also move according to the music, moving the hips in the slower parts, going a little crazy with Megan during the chorus, jumping wildly all around the stage. She did have fun that night after all. She didn't let any thought of Warren Peace disturb her mind. She'd meant it earlier when she'd told him she didn't care what he thought or did. She didn't anymore, she really didn't, and if she kept saying it often enough, it was going to be end up being nothing but true. Eventually.

* * *

**so? d'you like it? please let me know with some reviews!**

**oh, by the way, I just realized I've been using songs that, duh, do not belong to me. so, here you go, the disclaimer for all the songs I've been using do far in this fic, in chronological order:**

**"You really got me" (chapter 4), belongs to The Kinks (though I used the Van Halen version).**

**"The fallen" (chapter 4), belongs to Franz Ferdinand.**

**"Losing my religion" (chapter 8), belongs to REM.**

**"Should I stay or should I go" (chapter 12) belongs to The Clash.**

**and since I'm at it, I don't own Sky High or it's characters; whatever blossoms in my mind as of it's plot is entirely mine, though I do not receive any kind of payment for it, other than reviews.**

**done and trough with it!**

**please review**


	13. I’m not handing over my underwear!

**Hey everyone! today is Saturday, which means today is update day! yay!**

**sorry, I'm way too excited. I guess it has something to do with this being a very important chapter. not to mention it's my lucky thirteen, so I should be lucky enough and at least twice as many reviews as I've been getting lately... (that was a hint to all of you who are still to review for the very first time or to remind me you're still there).**

**ok, so I'll keep you no longer. read, enjoy, and please REVIEW!!**

Chapter thirteen: I'm not handing over my underwear!

Foster Prison had that vibe... the one that'd make you shiver, be careful not to step outside the line or look at anyone in the eye. It was large, out in the country and strongly secured. Of course, no civilian would know it was the largest high-security facility for villains in the country just by looking at it. It wasn't surrounded by electrified fencing, walls or any other kind of barriers to prevent scape, just towers standing alone 100 feet away the main building, about a dozen of them, surrounding it. There was a main gate, though, with two man guarding it, standing still and armed with plastic shotguns.

As far as the eye could see, there was a main building connected to two equally large halls, one in the right and the other in the left. There were windows in the main building, but none in the halls. Surely, that was where the prisoners were kept. The distance between the front gate and the entrance of the main building was entirely well-kept, green grass except for a wide pavement pathway to allow the entrance of vehicles as well as people. The pathway led to a double door, where two more guards were standing, and diverted to the back of the building.

"I'm here to visit my mother," Regina said tightly as soon as she approached the guards.

She was trembling, and not necessarily because she was scared but because it was freakishly cold out in the open. It was raining too, but only a few drops though the black sky over their heads promised a more furious storm.

The two guards glanced at each other and then one of them pressed the button of his walkie-talkie to check their information with what she'd told their fellows in the outer gate. Once done, she was allowed to enter the prison.

It was nothing like she had imagined. The floor was musk green marble, the walls covered in wood, some cozy looking beige couches, and a hallway in the left wall leading to a staircase. A front desk made in the same wood of the walls with a computer over it and a smiling receptionist sitting behind it was immediately next to the one thing that made you remember you were in a prison, an iron door and yet two more guards standing in front of it.

Regina walked to the smiling receptionist, a young woman in her thirties, with bronze skin and pitch black hair fashionably styled.

"Hi. I'm..."

"Please, put your thumb on the ID detector," the receptionist cut in, still smiling.

Regina did as she was told, placing her finger on the small, oval device inlaid on the desk. As she did, a white light scanned her thumb up and down and before she could remove it, Regina felt something pricked it with a pin or something.

"Ouch!" she wail as she quickly removed her souring thumb before she got more hurt. "What was that for?"

"We have to scan every single person to enter Foster, otherwise we could be letting in someone with the intention of helping the inmates scape," the receptionist explained. She was now staring at the computer monitor. "Let's see," she turned the monitor for her to see.

The file showed a picture of Regina, which she recognized as the one she'd taken for her driver's license, along with other kind of data about her and her family. "Boomowski, Regina R., born on 18th February 1991, in Atlanta, Georgia..."

"I was? I'm from Atlanta?"

The receptionist just stared at her. "Your mother provided with all this information during the summer, after your uncle and some officers came here and claimed you existed. Your file is very new."

Regina nodded, picking up something extremely important from what she'd said: Boom had visited her mother...

"Daughter of Roger P. Boomowski, a.k.a. Rockshiver and Wendy S. Boomowski, née Blast, a.k.a Mindreign. No siblings. Current address, Oak Ave. 1459, Maxville. Attends to Sky High... My alma mater, too. Does Medulla still teach there?"

"Yes," Regina replied.

"That crazy bastard," the receptionist smiled. "Anyway, according to your blood your powers are telekinesis and persuasion, no diseases of any kind. The file says you've been recently vaccinated as the calender stipulates. And this is the first contact you'll have with your mother in the past seven years," it wasn't a question and she didn't wait for confirmation. "You'll be allowed with one hug at the beginning and the end of the meeting. There'll be no touching during the meeting, no passing notes, food, gifts or anything that hasn't been previously investigated by the officer in the room. The building prevents any kind of power manifestation, except from the guards and every other individual wearing these," she showed Regina a metal bracelet around her wrist. "You won't be getting one, so do not try to use your powers in any way; if so, you'll be taken for questioning to find out your motives and charges will be pressed against you. I'll need to see the bag," she nodded to the bag in Regina's back.

"Oh," coming out of the deep daze provoked by trying to remember everything the receptionist was saying, Regina handed her bag to the woman. "Here you go."

One of the guards came behind the desk and started emptying the bag and inspecting it's content.

"There are motion sensors, CCTV monitoring, guards armed with lethal and non lethal weapons dispersed in the wings, plus their own powers. Your conversation will be recorded and you will have a limit of exactly thirty minutes from the moment your mother is brought to the visiting area. There will be nothing confidential about your conversation. Anything you or Mindreign say or do can and will be used against either of you in a court of law."

"Court?" Regina shrieked. "I'm just here to talk. I'm not a criminal or something..."

"According to your file that is correct. Please, sign here if you understand your rights as a visitor at Foster Prison," the receptionist handed her an official-looking form which had been just printed containing all the information she had seen in the computer, plus everything she'd been told by the receptionist. She signed next to the little X at the end of the page. "Thank you for your cooperation. After you're properly frisked, you'll be escorted to the visiting area."

The other guard came to her at the moment and started running his hands rapidly over Regina's clothing and throughout her pockets. Not finding anything worth detaining her, she was given back with her bag pack and led to the iron door by both guards.

"Have a pleasant visit," the receptionist smiled as the iron door opened and two other guards were there to receive her. One of them led her to a narrow hallway and up the stairs.

The change was remarkable. The floor was no longer marble, but some kind of steel, much like the walls. There was no windows and the only light came from the white light bulbs in the ceiling and the walls. It was a very oppressing environment, but not nearly as oppressing as the nod in Regina's stomach, hurting whenever she breathed or thought about the up-coming meeting with her mother. Not to mention the circumstances that had brought her to be there, alone.

It was the middle of November now, and nothing much had happened in the short two weeks that had past since Halloween. School was just fine, her friends were too. Evelyn was practically living with her and Boom, and Boom was less and less annoyed with Eve as the time went by. They had even had a double date, she with Medulla and Boom with some woman Medulla had brought along. It hadn't turned out good, though. Apparently, Medulla's friend was agoraphobic and had spent the entire night curled up in her seat, covering her face with a napkin and humming some lullaby. Medulla had been delighted with his date, tough, and even when he and Eve had gotten along great, she still decided to go home with Boom, who had drowned himself in wine during the catastrophic date.

Colin and her... well it was weird. They had a lot of time to spend together now that Regina wasn't grounded anymore, they'd go out, alone, to the movies, to have dinner, to the fair that had visited Maxville the previous week. She had even gone to have dinner at his house, met his parents, which was too embarrassing by half, specially when his grandmother caught them on the porch, just around the corner of the house, safely covered of all eyes, while they were making out. The poor woman claimed to be looking for her kitten; since that awkward meeting, she had been staring at them in awe during the whole dinner, as if she couldn't not think about what she had seen, making Regina blush profusely and having Colin pretending to cough every now and then to cover his barks of laughter.

But even though she cared about him a lot, she also didn't want to spend time alone _alone_ with him. Megan had told her it was just because she was still a virgin and everybody was even a little afraid of the unknown. She wanted to believe her, she really did, but even though she tried real hard to picture herself and Colin doing it and not be awkward about it, she just couldn't bring herself to be comfortable with the idea.

"Over here," the guard said as they entered the visiting area.

It was the first room she'd seen so far which had windows in it. There were a dozen of tables with seats around them, at least half of them occupied. She sat at one of the empty tables to wait. To wait and to watch. There were men and women inmates, but she already knew that Foster Prison was a mixed prison, keeping the female at the left hall of the building and the males on the right. Apparently this was one of the few areas they were allowed to share. The men were wearing deep blue jumpsuits and the women a similar outfit except their was bright red. The environment was more relaxed here, maybe because there was people chatting calmly, some smiling, some even laughing lowly every now and

then. It was hard for Regina to remember every inmate in the room had done something extremely bad to be locked away in the top high-security prison in the whole country, seeing them so human-like. Would her mother be like this, relaxed happy to see her? Regina was certainly not happy, but then again she wouldn't be leaving the prison before she saw her mother.

It wasn't like she had anything in particular to talk to her, she just... wanted to see her. Evelyn had understood, but Boom hadn't, and had forbade her to come and see her. He said she wasn't ready, that visiting a top security prison wasn't something a young lady should be doing, that maybe in a couple of moths, after the holidays they'd go together so Regina didn't have to face her own mother alone. She had argued like hell, saying she could take care of herself and didn't need to be over protected. Evelyn had argued in her own way too, calmly trying to make him understand that after so many years Regina had the right to see her mother, even if only for a short while. Regina had thought she had convinced him, but only until Boom said, "She just entered my life, so my protective instincts are flying up the roof. You are not going to see your mother until your ready, which you aren't. And even when you get ready, I'm going with you to make sure she doesn't cross the line."

Hearing him say that had really touched deep. She realized just then how much Boom loved her. He had no children of his own, and unless some miracle woman appeared in his life and managed to put up with him and actually want to have babies with him, he wasn't getting any. She was his family. In his eyes, she was more than a niece, she was his daughter. It was easy to realize that, and that to her eyes, too, Boom was more a father that an uncle. So she could just wait until he decided she was ready to face her mother- what were a couple of months after seven years of silence from her?. But then again, she couldn't. She had to see her. She had to know what she felt toward her own mother. Did she love her in spite everything she'd done? Did she hate her? Did she just feel indifferent to her?

"Regina."

Curt word, steel-cold tone. As she spoke it, she might as well be scolding at her for something she thought her daughter had done wrongly.

Wendy Boomowski was a tall woman, standing 5.9 feet next to the rough looking guard, sandy brown hair, grey eyes that stared down at her only daughter with a mix of anger, indifference and... was that surprise?

"Mom," Regina stood up, then hesitantly approached her. The guard was gone, so there were only the two of them, staring at each other. They were allowed with one hug now and another at the end of the visit, but she didn't feel like reminding that to her own mother; she was sure she knew the rules of this.

After a moment of tension, Wendy's face softened and something that could remotely relate to a smile curved her lips. She held her arms and Regina hugged her, though after so long it felt odd that they should be doing that. It was a short hug, anyway, and they sat then at the table, opposite to the other.

"I was wondering whether that brute you call uncle would let you come and see me," Wendy began softly. Regina didn't miss the insult.

"I have my ways."

"Of course you do. You're my daughter, after all," she claimed, a awful smug in her face.

"That's not what I meant," Regina cut in. "And how did you know...?

"That you and I share the same power? Boomer kindly let me know when he showed up here months ago demanding to have me hanged for being neglectful with you. By the way, does he know you're here?" she asked meanly. "That sounds very neglectful to me."

"Cut it off. Boom is a better parent than you and Dad ever were," she declared without thinking. Damn temper of her, couldn't take a few insults to Boom without kicking in.

"I beg your pardon?" her mother complain. "I'm your mother, Regina, don't forget that."

"You mean like you forgot me?"

"I did no such thing."

"Well leaving me in an orphan home when I have relatives who actually care about me is pretty close to forgetting me, wouldn't you agree? Oh, wait, what is it that Boom called it?" Regina pretended to remember. "That's right, negligence."

"I knew you wouldn't stay there long," she quickly dismissed the deal. "That's why I left you all that money. I knew one day you'd be smart enough to realize you'd be better off on your own."

"I wasn't smart, I was scared!" Regina argued. "I freaked out for seven years cuz I thought the heroes would hurt me. You told me so, you lied to me."

"I did you a favor! You can't trust these people," she went on calmly. "They are narrow minded. Your potential, Regina, is unlimited. You can tell people what to do, but it's so much more. You were born to rule, my little queen, just like I was. If Regan hadn't changed his mind at the last minute, I would be out there, with your father, and we'd be at the top of the world, and not in this cage..."

Regina felt her face go white, an odd reaction of her body considering how furious she really was. She had come to see her, to make sure she was okay, even when he mother hadn't had the same kindness toward her in the last seven years. She had defied Boom and runa away and for what? To hear her mother say the same crap she'd been fed with since she was a child? Didn't she realize she was in no position to claim she was meant to rule, or to claim that Regina had that right too? And above all things, she didn't feel the least bit guilty for walking out on her all those years ago! She believed she had done her daughter a favor!

"But I don't want to talk about that now," Wendy continued. "It's water under the bridge."

By the way she said it it was clear to Regina that she wished to have built a dam to keep the water from running...

"On your feet," she suddenly demanded. "I want to take a good look at my daughter."

It was awkward, it really was, standing there under her intensive gaze waiting impatient to know whether she'd passed the exam or not. Wendy looked at her up and down with a critic eye, slightly frowning. Regina didn't know what she'd prefer, to hear her say she was glad with what she had in front of her or that she might as well be leaving now and never come back.

"You have my cheekbones," she acknowledged while she nodded. "My eyes, of course, but I already knew that. Your nose is more perky than mine... but that's good too, it's like you're constantly looking down on people..."

"I don't think that's a good treat..."

"Oh, but it is. It strengthens your position," Wendy explained in a manner that in her might be considered cheerful. "You have Roger's mother's hair," she spitted. "I had hoped it got darker as you grew up, but I see it didn't. And you're short, like _her_..."

"Sorry," smiled as she sarcastically apologized.

"It's alright, it's not your fault. At least you got my colors," Wendy conceded.

Regina looked down at her clothes, black jeans and a smoke gray coat covering her from her throat down to her mid thigh. She hadn't removed the coat because inside the prison was still too cold for her likes, but all of the sudden she felt the need to take it off and toss it to the empty chair next to hers, if only to see her mother speechless for once. It revealed a boat-neck, form-fitting, long sleeved, bright _blue_ sweater.

With a grin of satisfaction, Regina sat back in her seat. "I have matching bra and thong if you want to see."

Her mother just gaped at her, ire trembling. "Blue is the Boomowskis' color."

"I wish I could say I only recently started wearing blue, but it's been years since I decided it made my eyes look very pretty."

"Don't use that tone with me, Regina."

"What tone?" she asked innocently, opening her eyes widely. "I'm being pleasant, mommy. You should try that sometimes."

They went silent now, and Regina didn't know whether her mother was considering to use a more pleasant tone with her or just thinking what would happen if she decided to chastise her daughter right there and then.

"Years of silence and she suddenly returns with an attitude," Wendy mumbled, her eyes fixated on some far point located on Regina's right. "You can't even pretend to enjoy seeing me. Look over there, that's a good son. His father was a villain with capital V and he still visits him twice a month, or so they say."

Regina looked in the direction her mother was pointing, expecting to find some bad-ass villain and his soon-to-be-joining-him-in-prison son. What she saw, well... nothing could've prepared her for that.

The villain was very young, didn't seam to be a day older than thirty years old. He was handsome too, in a dark, gloomy kind of way, with short black hair, naturally tanned skin and a look in his eyes that clearly warned against any sudden movement in his presence. On the other hand, he had the most charming, boyish smile, strikingly familiar to her, and he seamed to be having a good time. He was sitting, so she couldn't see how tall he was but she guessed he should be around 6 feet, if only because his legs seamed to be long, or at least that's what she could see from under his table. But he was really 6 feet tall, even so a little taller, and if she didn't guess that by the length of his legs, then he'd just have to compare him to his son and find both of them extremely alike.

What the hell was Warren Peace doing at Foster? _Playing cards with daddy, apparently._

"I hear he's on Solitary," Wendy mentioned, referring to Barron Battle. "The only contact the poor man has is with the guard that brings his food and his son."

And they seamed to be having a lot of contact, or at least that was the impression they gave, sitting there as if they weren't inside a prison, playing some sort of game with cards, being completely non-aggressive to the other. For some reason, Regina was convinced that Warren hated his father, yet that didn't seam to be the case at all. In fact, they were chatting, quietly, and Warren was so relaxed it was uncanny. She'd never seen him like that.

Without noticing –because she was so focused in trying to find an answer for Warren actually liking his father, Regina had been slumming herself into her chair and turned her face to the other direction, the one that was out of Warren's sight range, and covering her profile with her hand. Her mother, dear her, did notice.

"You know that boy?" she inquired.

"He goes to my school," and that was as much information as her mother was going to get.

"Why are you trying to hide?" she went on wary. "Are you ashamed of coming to see me?

"Yes," Regina responde matter-of-factly. Her mother's raised eye brows and suddenly tight lips were the perfect facial expression for _I beg your pardon?! _"Oh, c'mon. You're a terrible mother and you tried to blackmail men kind into following your orders by making them ill. What's not to be ashamed of?"

"I see Evelyn has a loose tonge. Tell me, did she enjoy Nepal?"

"Stop it mother. Your little word games are nothing to me."

"Your uncle has done a good job," Wendy scorned. "He managed to make your opinion of me sank rather low."

"I assure you it didn't have far to sink!"

And just like that she grabbed her coat and her bag pack and crossed the room toward the door at a remarkable speed.

"Regina!" her mother called back, mad like hell.

"Enjoy you'r life time without parole, mother!" Regina cried back, for everyone in the room to hear.

* * *

"So how well do you know this girl?" Barron said without lifting his eyes from his cards.

"Not as well as I would like to know her," Warren replied mildly. "I already told you about her, remember?"

"Yeah, and I see what you're saying," he nodded. "Very pretty."

"Creepy..."

"No, seriously, I'm glad I finally got to meet one of your she-friends," he smiled and winked his eyes.

"_Meeting_ requires acknowledge from both parties involved and since she hasn't even noticed we're here..."

"How'd you know she doesn't know we're here?" Barron asked. "She took a look around the room before Mindreign showed up. She could be just ignoring you."

Warren's jaw tightened, finding that posibility extremely possible. "She behaves awkwardly when she tries to ignore me," he quickly informed. "It's actually kinda funny."

Barron laughed. "Lord, you're so into this girl!"

"Shut up!" Warren whispered, his face red.

"Why don't you do something? You say she has a boyfriend but it's not like she's marrying the guy," he went on. "I highly doubt she could resist to your _charm_..."

"Stop laughing!"

"I can't!" over the sound of his laughter he heard his son grumble. "Oh, come on! I can't die and I going to spend the next four hundred years locked up here. The least you can do is letting me live through you."

"Get a hobby," his son recommended half smirking.

"I wish they'd just put me in cryogenic sleeping," Barron confessed rather seriously.

"And just wake up four hundred years later and knowing nothing about the world?" his son snorted.

"You try being thirty years old for eternity. I assure you is boring."

"You have only lived forty five years," Warren pointed out. "They won't put you in cryo now. Your lawyer said so; you have to wait at least till you're a hundred."

"But is such a long wait!" complained painfully. "I swear this power sucks. I hope none of your kids get it."

"That makes two of us," Warren agreed.

"Thank you, that means a lot," Barron cried ironically. Before he could help himself, Warren started laughing with him. "Hey, you were right."

"I was?" His brow rose sharply. "Should I ask what you're agreeing with me about?"

"She does behave awkwardly when she tries to ignore you!"

Warren looked discreetly to were Regina was sitting, her face red, turned to the opposite direction and trying to hide behind her hand.

"She's a piece of work," he commented.

"Well, if you want my advise, she is here alone, you are here alone and the roads might be closed for the storm so I'm thinking this could be your chance to talk your way around her... I don't know, maybe make her see her boyfriend is worthless next to you and that she'd be better off with you...?"

"I don't want a girlfriend," Warren lied.

"Of course you do! If you didn't you wouldn't talk about her every time you visit me," Barron maintained. "I have to tell you, I'm feeling pretty jealous."

"Well, don't be," Warren smiled. "She's already stated she wants nothing to do with me."

"Sometimes the mouth isn't in tune with the heart," Barron shook his head, hoping his words would sank into his skeptic son.

"I assure you it didn't have far to sink!"

Warren turned to watch Regina get up and walk away from her mother, both of them looking extremely mad.

"Regina!" her mother called back.

"Enjoy you're life time without parole, mother!"

"Whoa, she certainly has a temper," Barron remarked and looked at his son as a guard approached Mindreign to escort her to her cell. "You'd better be going after her, don't you think?" he persuaded with a very meaningful look.

"See ya in two weeks," Warren said over his shoulder as he left the table.

The man guarding the door only detained him for a moment, enough to open the door and let him. He was escorted back to the main hall, but even before he'd cross the iron doors he could hear Regina's screams.

"It was not a pleasant visit! And let me tell you something," Regina stormed. "That woman should be hanged! I don't know what you people are doing, wasting time and space with people that clearly don't even worth their own breathing!"

"Please, Miss, if you don't calm down we're going to have to detain you to make sure..."

"Detain me? Me?" she laughed. "Great, do so. Maybe you can find a little cell for me to share with that poor excuse of a mother...!"

She couldn't speak no longer. Maybe she was too upset to do it, but probably because someone had just grabbed her from behind by her waist and was pressing enough to leave her breathless. And before she could recognize the familiar chest she was being pressed to, Regina found herself with her legs no longer touching ground.

"I'm gonna take her home," said Warren behind her, his voice echoing inside his chest and therefore making her quiver.

She could've put a fight, demand him to put her down, yell at the guards and the receptionist for letting him walk out there with her without even asking if she was okay with it. Yet she did nothing; she just let him take her out of Foster because, in all fairness, she really didn't want to be there anymore.

Leaving the building, however, came with a surprise, a extremely dark, windy and wet surprise. The dark clouds she'd seen earlier had formed a storm, a bad one. The rain was thick and heavy, the lights in the yard and gate being hardly visible thanks to the watery curtain. The wind had turned Regina deaf and it was so powerful she was glad Warren was holding her so tight, otherwise she'd just flow away. She could feel him running, and how on earth could he manage that against the wind and carrying her was a mistery. He came to a stop rather quickly, though, and only then Regina noticed he had been running toward his car, parked in the prison's parking lot. No sooner was she again standing alone, he took off his leather jacket and covered her head and shoulders with it before he proceeded to open the passanger's door for her and run to the other side to let himself in. Regina didn't need to be told to get in and with no complain at all she jumped to her seat, shut the door close and realized she was freezing.

"Damn rain," she heard Warren mumble before he slammed his own door closed. He looked at her, soak wet. Up went the left brow. "That was quite the scene you pulled off in there."

"I was upset," Regina alleged in her defense as Warren passed the main gate and down the road to Addington.

He glanced at her. "What were you doing here? Why'd you come alone?"

"Boom wouldn't let me come, so I took the first bus I could get," she exposed mildly, as if she didn't regret strongly to have done that.

"You missed your mom?" he asked.

A simple question, that one. Not necessarily one that would be difficult to answer. Then why didn't she know what to say?

"I know I shouldn't," she stated. "She's an evil, self-involved, narrow-minded, control freak. She is everything a mother shouldn't be. She is cold and she abandoned me... but she is my mother, I'm biologically programmed to love her."

"I know what you mean..." he commented.

"You visit your father for the same reason?" he glanced back for a second. "My mother told me you go there often..."

"Yeah. It's complicated."

She didn't even have to say _Then un-complicate it for me_. Her look took care of that.

"He's... he's not evil. He's greedy, he's weak to temptations. He's immortal so he feels like no matter what he does, it's never going to be enough to bring the the excitement of life back to him," he explained, sad eyes on the front. "When he was young he'd do stupid stuff just to see if he could feel the pain... he once threw himself off the edge of Sky High and landed flat on his face in the middle of junkyard. All his bones were broken, his neck twisted and he still didn't feel it."

"So when he realized he couldn't do anything to actually hurt himself he started hurting other people?"

Warren nodded. "He said death is one of the conditions of human being, and he wanted to understand it. You must've heard about that one time he took a hospital..."

She had, like everybody. The Baron, as he made himself known, sneaked into a hospital, cut the power supply, locked up the whole place, got rid of all the medicines and the doctors and just sat and saw the patients die. Seventeen deaths was the whole total. Luckily, the heroes managed to thwart his sick plan by breaking in and saving the rest of the patients. He had scaped though and remained in the shadows for a few years after that.

"And let's not forget the colective bungee jumping at the Grand Canyon with no safety measures whasoever for himself or the citizens he'd abducted," he went on.

"The Commander and Jetstream were the ones that saved all those citizens, right?"

"Yeah, they were on his tail and my father had been quiet for too much time before that."

"That's when he went to jail for the first time," Regina went on. "But he got released for some medical condition..."

"Bipolar disorder," Warren specified. "The shringks said that's what made him do all the things he'd done and that with the right medicine he could led a normal life..."

"And then he married your mom..."

"She got pregnant..."

"And then the dam crashing," she finished lowly, remembering how things had gotten the last time she'd mentioned that incident.

He just went on as calmly as he'd been talking up till then, "Like I said, my father is greedy and weak to temptations. He saw the chance of drawing a whole village and try to understand what they were feeling in their last moments and so he did it. And it's going to burn in his consience for the rest of his life, which is going to be a very long one. After he was prosecuted my mom filled for divorce, he signed the papers with two conditions: one he'd get to pick my given name, cuz my mom had already informed him I'd be getting her surname, and two he was to keep in touch with me at least once a month when I was a kid, twice when I grew up. So I'm respecting the agreement."

"He picked _Warren_ on purpose?" Regina asked suddenly interested.

"Yeah," he nodded, half smiling. "We don't talk of what he did... we just play cards. He has a quick sense of humor, so we joke, occasionally. But we do not talk."

"What happens when you turn eighteen?"

"I haven't decided yet."

A lighting lit up the sky at the very moment, showing the empty country both sides of the road and the lights of Addington city a few miles away. A few feet away from the car, however, there was a huge muddy puddle. It didn't seem to be that deep, so Warren just drove over it. Yet as the thunder made the earth tremble and Regina shrieked, the car stopped dead in the middle of the puddle.

"What the hell...?" she heard him say over the sound of the storm and the igniton he was trying to get the car back moving.

"Try hitting the gas," Regina suggested.

He did so, but the car would still not start. Regina tried to to look out the window but found it impossible: the storm had taken all the light.

"I'm gonna get out there, see what the hell is wrong," he informed, annoyed beyond belief that this should happen right now.

"Whoa, are you insane? It's pitch black out there! You could get hit by a car and I don't see how you intend to find out what's wrong with the car if can't even tell the diff...!"

"Okay, genius, what's your great idea to get us to the nearest mechanic?" he argued.

"It has come to my attention, recently, that I can move things with my mind," Regina responded ironically. "Maybe, just maybe, I could get us to town."

Warren just sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. Regina took that a sign of permission.

She didn't even need to lift the car too much, just a few inches and then make it flow as fast as she could manage, easy enough, if you weren't counting on the strong wind that would make the car swing to one side and the other. She had to grab by the door when one particulary angry gust lifted the back of the car and they almost ended up face down to the road. Warren grumbled all the way down and at one point she thoguth she'd heard him cry of pain, but it was probably just her mind playing games on her, since the alleged cry of pain coincided with a loud thunder.

Luckily, the mechanic was easy to find once they got to town. Warren indicated her were to go and with most care, cuz there were a few lights in the city that made the car visible and she was sure no civillian would be thrilled to come across with a flying DeLorean, she managed to carry the car to the driveway. The landing was a bit more violent.

"Never again," Warren assured her.

"Oh, c'mon! It was fun, admit it!"

"I see you get your sense of humor back," Warren barked. "Stay in here, I'm gonna go talk to the guy."

He stepped out of the car and headed to the mechanic who was working inside the dry shell of his garage. They spoke for a moment and then Warren came back and re-entered the car.

"He needs the car inside the garage," he told her.

"No problem," she agreed, ready to push the car with her powers.

"Wait, you're gonna get exposed to a civilian! This is what we're gonna do," he explained. "You're gonna get out and under the garage, while the mechanic and I push the car in. But here's the trick, you'll be pushing too."

"Okay, I can do that."

"Just try to make it, you know, discreetly, so he won't get suspicious."

"Sure."

They did as Warren said and the car was in few minutes safe under the roof of the garage. Once there the two men opened the hood and leaned over the engine to see what was wrong with it. The mechanic kept shaking his head during the whole deal, and Warren's expression grew darker and darker as the talked. Finally, Warren approached her.

"The engine is swamped," he began. "There's water in the oil pan, the carb needs draining... There's sandy mud on the filter..."

"I hear what you're saying but I don't really _get_ it so..."

"There's no way she'll start until it's drained and cleaned. Four days. A week, tops," he explained.

"A week!" she looked at him. "How are you going to get back to Maxville?" Warren stared down at her with arched brow. "Right, the bus," _Great, just what I needed. Me and Sparky sharing the same vehicle for six freaking hours._

"Yeah, there's a little problem about the bus..." he half smiled. "They aren't leaving town till the storm is clear, apparently it's a very bad storm."

"What? No, I have to get home before Boom get's back from Freeburg!"

Warren hated to do it, but he had to point it out. "You can always call Culpepper and have him pick you up."

Yes, she _could_do that. She'd at home in less than a minute instead of the six hour trip the bus took. But Colin didn't know she had gone to Addington and she could only imagine what it would look if Colin teleported from Maxville to find her wet, without transportation back home and in the company of Warren Peace.

"I... That's not and option," she just said.

"Well, with a little luck it'll clear up in the morning," he predicted. "We can catch the first bus."

"And what do we do till then?"

"Well..."

* * *

"Were you expecting company?" Regina inquired suddenly enraged.

"What if I did?" Warren shot back as he dropped his bag pack in an empty chair.

"Then I'd hate to inconvenience you. I can totally find another room to sleep."

Certainly not one that looked so cheaply obscene. The ceiling was covered in mirrors, reflecting the room under it. The bed was round shaped with a disgusting shiny red blanket. There was no T.V., no radio, only a phone next to the bed. The bathroom door and wall were made of stained glass, hence offering little covering, and the lighting was red too.

"There is only one motel in town and they only had this room free when I checked in earlier," Warren informed as he removed the red scarfs covering the lamps. At least now the light was white.

"Why were you spending the night here, anyway?"

"The forecast announced a storm," he said simply, shrugging his wide shoulders. "I don't like driving with rain."

Regina turned her back on him, inspecting the disgusting room. "You know, I've slept in cheap motels, but this one is by far the cheapest _ever_."

"I'm sorry you feel disappointed, Your Majesty," Warren replied sarcastically.

"You laugh, but I don't find this," she pointed at the red bed "funny. What are you doing?" she took one step back.

He was giving off steam, a lot of steam. In just moments his clothes were dry along with his hair and his skin. Regina found herself regretting that, he looked so damn well dripping water.

"Hand me you clothes," he demanded.

"Why?" she asked, her heart pounding inside her chest, taking yet another step back.

"So I can dry them and you wont freeze to death," Warren explained short-tempered.

Regina avoided his gaze and moved awkwardly in her spot, wringing her hands.

"I wasn't suggesting you'd strip for me," he clarified, somewhat amused. "You can use the bathroom and hand the clothes over to me."

"Oh, you mean the bathroom with the _glass_ wall?" she pointed out with a tight smile.

"I won't look," he promised weakly.

"Yeah, right."

"Suit yourself," he dismissed her and went to lock the door and look outside the window.

Regina took off his leather jacket and then her coat and draped them over the back of two chairs. Warren noticed that and grabbed his jacket, stripped of his shirt, put the wet jacket on and dried it the same way he'd done with the rest of his clothes.

"Your jaw is hitting your knees," he remarked at Regina's gaped expression. She quickly closed her mouth and sent daggers to him with her eyes. "It works faster that way," he answered the question she hadn't got to ask.

He went back to his place by the window –shirt back on- and left her in the centre of the room trembling cold. Only when her teeth started gnashing she decided to give in.

"I swear, if I catch you peaking or I hear one chuckle...!" she threatened as she slide the bathroom door open and went inside.

Warren smirked and leaned in the wall next to the door and facing the bed so he wouldn't be temped to watch. First came her blue swetter, then her white, boat neck blouse and finally her pants, socks and shoes. Placing each item of clothing over his bare chest he had everything dryed in a matter of minutes, though her scent was now all over him, making him go a little crazy.

Joking was probably not the wisest thing to do considering the level of embarrassment she was under at the moment, but he couldn't help it.

"Is that all?" he asked innocently.

"_I'm not handing over my underwear!"_

"Okay, just checking," he smiled. He passed her her clothes from the opening of the door. "I'm gonna go get something to eat," he said. "I'll be back in a while."

Before he left the room, however, he looked back to the stained glass door. She was behind it and her silhouette was visible. He came to a stop. He was breathless. His mind went blank, then abruptly focused on one thing. Regina was naked behind that glass. And he could see it.

Warren slammed the door closed a little bit _too_ hard when he left.

* * *

There was no point in stopping the blushes while she stripped off her clothes, knowing not only that Warren was nearby but also he was partially naked too and just to imagine his bare chest giving off steam, drying her clothes... slowly dropping her shirt over his muscular shoulders, his skin wet for a few seconds... water drops traveling lazily over his wide chest till the were disintegrated...

No wonder why when she was done her entire body was bright pink. And the thing that bothered her the most was that she didn't feel awkward about it or uncomfortable. Her heart was pounding hard, yes, and she'd probably have trouble looking at Warren in the eye once he came back from his food quest. But it wasn't remotely as bad as... Colin. God, she'd almost forgotten about him, somehow, for some reason she didn't care to analyze now.

Why couldn't she wait like Boom had suggested? If she had been smart and do so she wouldn't be in this situation. She wouldn't have to worry about what she might do, because knowing Warren –and she like to believe she did, if only a bit- he wasn't going to be a rock. He had come on to her in the past, repeatedly, and whether because he wanted it or just to prove a point and annoy her she knew he had a thing for her. She may have managed to stop him back in Maxville, where there was people she could turn to to keep herself focused. But in this God's forsaken town, after a massive discussion with her mother, _having_ to spend the night together? Yet the problem wasn't Warren. He was predictable; he'd see a chance and go take it. The real problem was, would she be able to stop him here and now? Did she really want to?

_Alright, I'll be the rock,_ Regina determined, facing herself in the bathroom mirror.

"_You're still in there__?"_ she heard him call.

"I'll be out in a sec!" but not before he had dried himself again after another trip into the rain. She was not making the mistake of staring again.

She waited two whole minuted to go out, which she used to brush her hair with a brush some previous visitor had forgotten. She could correct her make up, make herself look stunning again, but if she did, would that be an invitation to Warren? She didn't want to give him any false signals.

She finally slid the stained glass door open and left the bathroom. He had dried himself, alright, and he was sitting in the middle of the bed with a large variety of snacks in front of him.

"I got chips, pretzels, jelly beans, nuts, chocolate cookies and some suspicious looking cheese. Soda?" he offered and handed her a can of Coke.

"Thanks. You know, my uncle would kill me if he knew I'm having junk food for dinner," Regina smiled as she took some chips and sat in the hedge of the bed.

"I have the feeling your uncle would kill just to know you came here in the first place."

"Very, very likely," the wind hauling in the outside and the raindrops over the roof made it kind of difficult to hear anything inside the room. "How bad is it?" she asked after a particularly loud thunder.

"All the roads are closed," he began. "The nearby river is this close to overflow, the phones are dead, some parts of the city have no power..."

"What if the prison get affected by power loss? Wouldn't that be a risk for the villains to scape or something...?

"They have their own power generator," he said. "I remember lots of storms like this in this town when I was a kid. It's no biggie, happens all the time. I think it has something to do with magnetic fields..."

But Regina never got to know what was it that made the magnetic fields responsible for the storms. The power went down just then, turning off every lamp in the room at once. Their only source of light came for the occasional lightnings now. It was so dark she could barely see Warren opposite to her. And then there was light. Only this time it came from Warren's left hand.

"This is going to be one long night..." he mentioned as he sipped his soda.

* * *

She kept trying to convince herself that she'd eventually get warm, but it made no point. The blankets piled on top of the bed, she had no reason to still be cold. But she was. God, it was torture; Warren didn't have to worry about being cold. He'd told her himself before dripping into sleep beside her, he could keep his body temperature as hot as he wanted to, hence maintaining the cold surrounding him at bay. Regina, on the other hand, hadn't that ability, and as soon as the room got colder –Warren had kindly warmed up the pipes before they go to bed so the room would be somewhat heated- the chill had got her and it wouldn't go away. She didn't dare move much in bed, afraid to wake Warren. He had told her he was tired from driving all morning and that his shoulder, the one he'd kept on a sling, was hurting too.

That was actually a funny story. Right after they'd gone to bed she had asked him about his car accident, just to easy the tension building in both sides of the bed. And, she had to admit, she was a little curious too. It turns out the accident wasn't to blame for his injured arm or shoulder for that matter. The dog he had run into –which had been hardly hit and tended by a vet right away- just happened to be owned by one of the bystanders, who had run in aid for his pet and turned in sudden rage to Warren and started beating him. Not that Warren couldn't stand a beating or defend himself, but the dog's owner had three buddies with him that day and they gladly put their two cents into the fight. It wasn't that bad, Warren claimed, till he was pushed against the pavement and he landed with his shoulder against the curb. Luckily he didn't broke his shoulder blade or he would've had to use a funny cast for a couple of months. Only the muscles had suffered and he would have to wait about six months till it didn't hurt at all, but still it was better than the other option.

But thinkingg about that wasn't making her any warm. As chilled as she still was, she was drawn strongly to that heat coming from the body laying beside her, to satify the basic need of warmth. Yet that was a need she didn't dare to satisfy. It was disturbing enough to be there next to him. Touching him, even to save her from freezing? She wasn't desperate enough.

She must've got some sleep after all because next thing she knew she was holding Warren tightly, with her head resting in his shoulder, her arm crossing his chest, her leg tangled between his. He was cooperating to that awkward situation too, his cheek resting over the top of her head and holding her with both his arms by the waist. They were so close she could smell his breath and is was so sweet and hot she immediately felt suffocated. She had to untangle herself before he woke up!

Very carefully, she removed her leg from in between his, let go of his abbs and tried to left his embrace. She almost did it, but he just squeezed her tighter and roled a little on the side, so now she was also partially crushed by him. And he kept sleeping soundly.

He didn't snore, which was good. She didn't think she could handle all that was going on at the moment _and_snoring too. But his lips... man, they were so sexy, made to be kissed and nibbled...

And just as she found herself apraising his lusty lips, Warren's eyes opened and they were staring right at hers and she was staring back. Suddenly it felt stupid to try to get themselves out of that situation. Suddenly, the only thing that made any sense was to kiss.

He held her cheek with one hand while he kissed her, pressing her against him with the other one in the middle of her back. He was gentle. He was thorough. He was at his persuasive best. And he was driving her mad. She didn't just lay there, though, his neck, his shoulders, his hair recived the most tender caresses as she longed for more contact...

His shirt had to go, and quickly. He obligued to it, without exchanging a word with her, because words might bring them back from that magical enchantment. No words, just kisses, caresses and looks, heated looks, tender looks. Warren soon followed her lead and carressed a little on his own too, first her back, then her belly, up and down over the silky skin, driving his kisses on to her neck, her shoulders, leaving a moist, hot trail that caused shiver after shiver to pass down her arms, down her spine, down her legs.

Her shirt followed his in the floor, along with the blankets they no longer needed. Tired of him being the one in control –his upper body trapping her against the bed as he was- she corrected that situation in only two moves and got him flat on his back, with Regina sitting straight over his waist, her legs spread on both sides. A lightning lit the room just for Regina to see Warren's brow go up in amusement, a slight smug curving his lip. She gave her a shut-up kind of kiss and leaned down to continue to kiss him as his hands drove slowly down her waist to her but.

His phone started ringing just after he had taken care of removing her bra. The silly tune – I'm too sexy by Right Said Fred- brought reality to what they were doing and Regina might as well dig a hole and bury herself for all the embarrassment she was feeling right now. Her cheeks were red, she was sure, and only then she took conscience that she was sitting over Warren with her legs wide open and her breast revealed for him to watch at his heart desire. He took his cell from his pocket –Regina had to move to her side a little bit- flapped it open and answered.

"Yeah?" he kept her eyes on hers. "I can't talk right now, Will."

Burying herself in a hole in the ground was likely to end up her only option. She could only imagine the embarrassing conversation she'd be having in a matter of minutes with Warren about how wrong was what they had been about to do. She should get off him, retrieve her clothes and try to save some of her pride. But she didn't move, she waited for him to tell her to.

"I'll see you tomorrow. Bye," he flapped it close and looked up to her. Regina didn't look away.

Warren sat up in bed, but still held her over him. Now they were eye-level inquiring each other what to do next. After a couple of minutes of awkward silence Regina rounded his neck with her hands and came closer to him, if possible. He grinned then, hugged her tight and kissed her. Without breaking that devouring kiss he pulled her back down to the bed.

The last thing Regina heard was his cell phone hitting the wall after he'd trown it away. The storm was far from her mind. The horrible room was far from her mind. The whole world mattered no more. There were just feelings and sensation in her head and in her body. And both dazed like that they didn't realize until far latter that the storm had stopped.

* * *

"You shoul've told me," Warren scold next to her, his eyes staring at his own reflection in the ceiling. "No, you shoul've stopped me!"

"Just for how long are we going to have this conversation?" she asked lazily.

"Until I say so!" he glanced at her sleepy face in the mirror. "You were a virgin."

"And you're making a big fuss out of this because...?"

"Forget it, you're impossible!" he turned on his side, away from her.

"Warren...! C'mon," she spitted. "You really think this would've happened if I didn't want it? And please remember I had plenty of chances to make you run out of the room and into the storm. I might have been a virgin but not stupid. I knew what we were doing!"

"But I didn't!" Warren exploded and sat up.

"So that's what this is about? You feel deceived?"

"Yeah. You don't have sex for the first time with some guy in the cheapest motel room ever!"

She froze immediately. "Well, it was about time you relapse in the name calling. How long was it that you lasted without insulting me? Two weeks?"

She got out of bed, ignoring the chill in the room and collected her clothes. She couldn't believe that after what had just happened between them he would still be a jerk.

"That's not what I meant," he said carefully, she was so enraged.

"Yes it was! Why else would you be sooo upset? You don't like sleeping with sluts!

"That's not..."

"Finish that sentence and I'll _make_ you walk your bare ass all the way down to Maxville," Regina threatened coldly.

He let her have her spit, scoffing as she picked her stuff, glancing at him with fire in her gray eyes, murmuring sentences like "don't know what I was thinking" and "I'll have him castrated" that only came to him by parts.

"You think you're the only one who gets to be angry?" he left the bed too and approached her. "How d'you think I'm gonna feel when we're back at Maxville and you return to your precious Culpepper and I became just a story you can tell your friends about?"

Oh God, Colin. She realized that not once had she thought of Colin tonight. Not once had she considered that she was being unfaithful to him. Those feelings had just taken over, leaving her uncaring of anything except gratifying them. And he had a point there, and she suddenly undestood why he was so upset. She had cheated on her boyfriend. With Warren. And she hadn't realized any of this until him felt the need to point it out.

"You're right," she agreed. "But still..."

"Come back to bed, it's cold out here," he nodded to the round bed, his features softened. Some of the guilt she was feeling must've shown to make him get over his outburst of rage that quickly.

She followed him and got under the covers. It _was_ cold. Yet again she was drawn to his warmth, but daren't to move closer in case he didn't like it. However, he put an arm around her and pulled her to him, her head now resting in his shoulder.

"We'll worry about that later," he just determined, caressing her upper arm.

It felt nice, being back in his arms. It somehow eased the guilt and the worry she was feeling. But he was right, there was no point in worrying about that now.

"The storm is gone," she pointed out after a while.

"We still have to wait a couple of hours before the first bus leaves town," he reminded her. Then, hesitantly "Do you want to sleep?"

"Not particularly..." she laughed and lift her head to plant a kiss in his willing lips.

* * *

**I have the feeling more than one of you is now gaping at your screen. but yes, that really did happen...**

**remember to review! after the amazing chapter I gave you you owe me! ;)**

**see you guys in two weeks!**


	14. High school fucking musical 101

**Hello dears! I must confess I was afraid I wouldn't be uble to update today, but as you see, I could. the thing is, it'll probably take me about a month to get the next one up... Don't worry, It's not because I'm having trouble with the plot or anything -in fact, the main drama is to begin in this chapter, even if it doesn't seam so...**

**my point is, you'll have to wait a little longer to see how this story continues. but, for the time being, I gave you chapter number 14 and hope you enjoy it and review as you so wonderfully do!**

Chapter fourteen: High school fucking musical 101

The student counselor, Mrs. Ferraro, sat quietly expecting in her bright pink armchair, a journal with empty pages resting in her lap, waiting for her to start writing with her golden pen. She was pleasant looking, with curly shoulder length hair and warm brown eyes that kept staring at Regina. She, on the other hand was sitting in a sofa across from Mrs. Ferraro, avoiding her gaze, waiting impatiently for the session to finish.

"You know," Mrs. Ferraro said. It was the first time she opened her mouth in three sessions, after her fruitless attempts to make Regina talk during the first session. "This would go a lot faster if you told me what happened," no answer. "I don't mind sitting here silently, but you have to consider the whole picture. Until I say your counseling is done and you're fine, the school will make you come here, and if you refuse to receive treatment no collage will have you. You want to go to collage, don't you?"

_Typical_, thought Regina.

"I understand you're interested in science," she opened her pink folder and over read Mr. Medulla report. "Of course, none of the top universities will allow an unstable student..."

"I'm not unstable," Regina stated. "It was an accident."

"I want to believe you , but I can't if you don't try to convince me," Regina lowered her eyes. "What's the worst that could happen? I can't tell anyone your secrets, I can't judge you. All I can do is help you and I want to help you so that what happened last week won't happen again."

Regina wanted that too, but talk about it... it was too embarrassing by half.

"Why don't you start by telling me what was going on on your life before the incident?" Mrs. Ferraro suggested.

"It was a really regular week," she lied. "I had homework, saw my friends. Nothing out of the ordinary."

Mrs. Ferraro nodded. "You do know I'm a psychic, right?" she asked and Regina nodded. "Then please don't lie so terribly. I can tell."

"Fine. I broke up with my boyfriend on Monday."

"Was there any reason in particular?"

"I cheated on him," she confessed, and before she could ask her when she let her know all the facts of her sleeping with Warren.

"How did he take it?" Mrs. Ferraro inquired after Regina was finished.

"Warren? He took it _really _well..." and she had benefited for that too.

"I meant your ex-boyfriend," she corrected kindly.

"Oh. Well, that probably could've gone a lot better..."

THE MONDAY BEFORE THE INCIDENT.

"Hey, babe."

Colin greeted her with a huge grin as he approached with Mike and Kyle. They were all laughing –nothing out of the ordinary regarding those three particular friends- and completely out of place considering the current mood Regina and Megan were experiencing. Megan was already aware of what had happened with Warren and what Regina was going to do, and what had surprised her the most was that Megan wasn't mad or disappointed, in fact, she had claimed she had seen it coming, literally. Turns out her science partner could see the future and every Monday and Wednesday Megan could use her partners power until it wore out on her. She said she had had a vision a couple of weeks ago, in Halloween, actually, and had seen Regina and Warren together. She said she didn't know where or when it would happen, but it would happen. And it had. And Regina now had to break up with Colin, just like she and Warren had decided.

That was nice, too, the first decition they had taken together. Just to think about that was nice...

What wasn't nice was what was going to happen with Colin once she broke up with him. Not only was she going to crush him, but also would be losing a very good friend, not to mention Mike and Kyle would most likely take on his side after knowing what Regina had done. Because she was going to tell him, there was no way she could keep that secret to herself, or make him think she was breaking up with him because there was something wrong with him.

She really didn't want to lose the guys as friends, and neither did Megan. But she had to tell the truth to Colin, after all, he deserved it.

Before Colin leaned and kissed her good morning, she grabbed his hand and whispered "I need to talk to you," in his ear. Something in her tone must've given her away, because his good mood suddenly vanished and he frowned worriedly.

She took him apart next to a window framing the stormy sky and let go of his hand. She had practiced her speech for countless hours and now she know what to say; the only little problem was that she couldn't bring herself to say it.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I... I'm..." she sighed and closed her eyes, trying to get herself together. "There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to say it. I care about you, a lot. I think you're great and honestly this past few weeks with you have been wonderful... you deserve someone who would give her whole heart to you."

"I'm guessing that someone is not you," he said. Regina hated to see him like that, so beaten. And she hadn't even told him why she was breaking up with him. "Why...?"

Regina breathed in sharply and looked down. This was the part she had feared and the part she knew would hurt him the most. "I cheated," she mumbled.

Colin choked, opened his mouth to say something but snapped it closed again. He leaned to the wall next to him and raked both hands through his golden hair. He finally sighed, then pinned Regina with one of his angriest looks.

"When? No wait, with whom?" he sputtered.

"It happened last Saturday," she informed.

"With whom?" he repeated more loudly. The students passing by turned their heads to see what was going on. A few feet away Megan, Mike and Kyle were staring at them, no doubt knowing exactly what was happening.

"That's not important..."

"It's damn important to me!"

"Colin, please..." he laughed bitterly. "I'm sorry! Do you think I like this? That I enjoy rubbing it in? I hurt you, I betrayed your trust. I'm the one who's ashamed!"

"And I'm the one who's getting dumped!" he argued. "Do I know him?" he went on mildly.

"Yes, but he's not Mike, Kyle or any of the guys of the team."

"Jeez, that narrows it down," he was now turning sarcastic, not a good sign.

Regina crossed her arms over her chest, keeping her eyes pinned in the floor. Protecting Warren's identity was her plan all along, the last thing she wanted was those two dueling over her or something. She could see his feet moving angrily and then walking away. Regina's head shot up and cried "Colin!"

"I can't see you right now, Reggie!" he cried over his shoulder, not even looking back.

He walked away from her down the hallway, Mike and Kyle closing behind him. She could've fallen flat to the floor if the wall weren't holding her straight.

"I'd say his reaction was rather mild considering the circumstances," Mrs. Ferraro commented.

"You don't know Colin. He shuts himself and lets no one know what his real feeling are," an idea came to her immediately. "You think the incident had something to do with me breaking up with Colin?"

She thought over that for a moment. "It's not unheard of... but in your case I'm inclined to think your mother is the most likely responsible."

"My mother?"

"You went to see her a week before the incident. That must've been a traumatic experience."

"I would have to care for it to be traumatic."

"No matter what you say deep down I'm sure that visit stringed something in you."

"Yeah, well, I realized she doesn't care about me," Regina confessed. "She keeps going on and on with that crap of us being the ruler of the world."

"_Us_?" Mrs. Ferraro inquired.

"Yeah, her idea was that she and my father would take over the world and then one day when I was old enough I'd be ruling with them. _My little queen_, she called me."

"That must be hard to take," she said carefully.

"She's in prison and my father is dead, so it really doesn't matter what their sick minds had planned for me. However, now that I think about it I actually learned something from my mother that day."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I finally know the name of their accomplice!" Regina shot up from the couch and started pacing excitedly. "His name was Royce and surely he's still out there," she turned to Mrs. Ferraro, who was following her pace up and down with extreme curiosity. "I have to find him. He might even try to take over the world again."

"A hundred different villains try to take over the world each day, Reggie, and it's hardly the job of a seventeen year old girl to try to stop one of them. That's why the heroes are for."

"Yes, but the heroes don't know about him. No one ever knew..."

"Then I'm sure you'll be taking your concerns to the right people," Mrs. Ferraro cut in impatiently. "Now, we're in the middle of a session and we haven't talked about the real problem yet."

Regina dropped in the couch and crossed her arms. All she cared to do now was to try to find this Royce character, not digging in her thoughts to find out whether the incident would repeat or not.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me about the week before the incident?"

"I hardly spoke with Colin, he kept avoiding me. Hum," she tried to remember anything in particular, but it had really been a very normal week. "Mike and Kyle were pretty mad at me too, but they kept talking to Megan, and she told me not to worry, that they would eventually come around..."

"How about Warren?"

"We decided to keep our relationship secret, for now. For Colin's sake."

"And how's that working out for you?"

"It's working out fine... now," Regina sighed. "We had a fight..."

THE THURSDAY BEFORE THE INCIDENT

They were in her room, laying in her bed. The door was closed so no sound would come to her uncle who was watching t.v. in the sitting room. After all, he had no idea Warren had climbed down the three next to the roof and walked over the roof down to her window, which she had left opened waiting for him to come. They were just making out though.

"Can I tell Will?" he asked suddenly.

He had been trying to get her off guard and get the yes he so desperately wanted to be finally able to tell his best friend about them being together, but Regina was no fool. She had good reasons for not wanting Will Stronghold to know about them.

"No," she said for the ninth time that day, without stop kissing him.

Warren, on the other hand, did break the kiss and leaned his head back a few inches. "Are you planning on telling me why?"

"No," she smiled and leaned to continue kissing him, but he stopped her.

"I could read you to find out."

"Do it. I dare you," she grinned mischievously.

He wasn't finding it funny tough. He sat on the bed and looked down on her with a deep frown. "Hazec knows," he reminded her.

"Megan is not telling anyone."

"And Will is?"

"Yeah!" she realized it was the wrong answer after she's said it and quickly tried to amend her words. "What I mean is..."

"I know what you mean. You can trust your friends but I'm not allowed to do the same," he cut in.

"If you tell Will, he'll tell Layla, and Layla is a girl, there's no chance she's gonna keep this from Magenta, and thai's were the real issue lays, because she is definitely going to tell Colin or make sure Colin hears about us," she explained sitting up as well. "I told you, I don't want to hurt him."

"So what you're saying is that I _was_ right. You don't think my friends are trustworthy!"

"Of course I don't think their trustworthy, I barely know them!"

"Then you shouldn't be so quick to judge," he shot back and left the bed to pace angrily up and down the room. "I know them and I'm the one who should decide whether _my friends_ should know about us or not!"

"Not if it concerns me!" her temper rose and so did Regina from the bed.

"You didn't ask for permission when you went and told Hazec, yet it seams that's all I do lately, _ask for permission_!" Warren practically spit the lats words.

"I tell you she's not telling anyone!"

"You keep saying that, but guess what, _I_ don't trust her!"

That wasn't going well. They hadn't had a single fight since they had come back from Addington, and now they were practically tearing each other's eyes out. Any minute now Warren would be giving off smoke and Regina would be making every blunt instrument in her room fly at fast speed at Warren's head. Then the name calling would began and who knew what else. She couldn't let that happen. The past week with Warren, even though they were operating in secrecy or something like that, had been great. Regina didn't want to ruin that.

"Fine, go ahead. Tell Will, Layla and whoever you want to enlighten," she finnaly gave in, if so a little coldly. "Your choice."

"Guilt is not gonna work with me, Reg."

"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty," she retorted offended. She could have just leave it there and everything would go back the merry way they were. But Regina wasn't good at measuring her words when Warren was concerned. "If you're guilty it must be your mind telling you you're doing something wrong."

And there he was, giving off smoke just as she had pre-seen. He had a little more self control that Regina in avoiding fights though. Without saying another word and only glancing angrily at her once, Warren passed by Regina and climbed down the opened window.

"So you had a lovers fight," Mrs. Ferraro said comforting. "It happens to all of us. And you kids worked things out, didn't you?"

"Yes, hum, after the incident," Regina specified.

"Which happened the day after your fight with Warren," Regina nodded. "Why don't you tell me how that day started?"

"It was very normal. I got up and got ready for school. It was an important day because Evelyn was giving a conference here, about choosing the wrong path once and getting back in the right one, you know, the story of her life," she began. "I noticed something was weird when I got off the the bus."

"What was it?"

"There was music in the campus."

FRIDAY. THE DAY OF THE INCIDENT.

She hadn't slept that much the night before, rolling to one side and the other in her bed. The deep circles under her eyes attested to that. The little, annoying voice of her conscience kept telling her she should talk to Warren and apologize, manage a way to get to an agreement about his friends. She was only paying enough attention to her surrounding so she wouldn't collide against any fellow student. That's why she didn't notice the first light notes of music, but she certainly did so when a guy one class bellow her started to sing, standing over the steps in the entrance of the building.

"_When there's no where else to run  
Is there room for one more son  
One more son  
If you can hold on  
If you can hold on, hold on."  
_

Regina first stared at him as if he were fresh out of the nut house or something. She just passed by him and crossed the double doors, but then the music was faster and louder, and others were gathered in the main hall, and they were _dancing_, some standing in the staircase that lead the the upper floor, moving accord some complicated choreography.

"_I wanna stand up,"_ girl next to her, who had entered right behind Regina was singing now. _"I wanna let go."_

"_You know, you know - no you don't, you don't."  
_

"_I wanna shine on in the hearts of men."  
_

"_I wanna mean it from the back of my broken hand."  
_  
At the moment, Regina was paralyzed. Wide eyed, jaw-dropped, paralyzed. People were singing. And they were acting like it was okay.

"_Another head aches, another heart breaks  
I am so much older than I can take,"_ she knew that boy! He was on the football team!

"_And my affection, well it comes and goes  
I need direction to perfection, no no no no,"_ and him, too! He was the huge guy who had winked at her when Boom had told her he wouldn't rest till she could lift him without blinking!

_"Help me out  
Yeah, you know you got to help me out  
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner  
You know you got to help me out, yeah,"_ now they were all singing along!

_"And when there's nowhere else to run  
Is there room for one more son,"_ That was Mike! Mike!

_"These changes ain't changing me  
The gold-hearted boy I used to be,"_ and Kyle!

_"Yeah, you know you got to help me out  
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner  
You know you got to help me out  
You're gonna bring yourself down  
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down  
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down."_

_They stopped_, Regina thought. _Please make them stop!_

Yet the lights went down, and a single spotlight coming out of some point above Regina illuminated brilliantly a guy on the top of the stairs. _"I got soul, but I'm not a soldier."_

Others joined him. _"I got soul, but I'm not a soldier."_

And they kept on and on. _"I got soul, but I'm not a soldier."_

"_I got soul, but I'm not a soldier."_

"_I got soul, but I'm not a soldier."_

"_I got soul, but I'm not a soldier."_

"_I got soul, but I'm not a soldier."_

And now they were screaming. Regina made a quick choice and started to run away from the freaks and their disturbing singing habits. But the students she passed by in the halls were singing too! She couldn't get away!

_"Yeah, you know you gotta help me out  
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner  
You know you gotta help me out  
You're gonna bring yourself down  
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down  
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner  
You're gonna bring yourself down  
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down."_

_"Over and in, last call for sin  
While everyone's lost, the battle is won  
With all these things that I've done  
All these things that I've done."_

_  
"Time, truth, and heart."  
_

"_If you can hold on  
If you can hold on."_

After colliding against several people, Regina found an empty closet and shut the door behind her. She leaned against the closed door, hugging her bag, her heart pounding and her head trying to find some sense in what had just happened. Surely it was just a thing the students of Sky High did every now and then. Like dressing up for Halloween! Maybe this was some sort of High School Musical Friday. Or maybe she had immagined the whole thing. Yes, that was more likely. Disturbing, yes, considering that would mean she needed psychological help, but possible nonetheless.

She breathed in and out for a couple of minutes, trying to calm down. When she was finally back to her normal self she determinately left the closet, with every intention to walk down to Hero Protective Law and not hear anyone singing along the way.

She wasn't getting that wish, though. That realization came right into her mind as she left the closet and walked by a couple standing in front of the lockers. They seamed to be having some sort of fight, and as soon as Regina was in hearing distance no doubt about what was the matter was left.

The guy, whom she recognized from her History class -his name was Henry or something-, was looking extremely upset, which went remarkably well with the music that dominated the hallway at the moment.

"_My girl, my girl, don't lie to me,  
Tell me where did you sleep last night?"_

The girl he was reproaching to was more pissed off that sad, surely offended for his thinking she had cheated on him. She retorted to her boyfriends demand, singing as it seamed to be everybody's way that day.

"_So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?  
So you think you can love me and leave me to die?  
Oh baby, can't do this to me baby!  
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here!"_

"Oh my God," Regina said, not minding she was actually talking to herself. Out loud. "I need to find Warren!"

Easy enough, they both had the same first class of the day so he'd be somewhere around that classroom. But she would prefer to talk to him alone, privately. He must have an explanation for what was going on, because it wasn't in her mind and everybody was acting too normal for it to be one of Sky High's bizarre custom.

"Warren!" she found him with Will next to him locker. She approached them. "I need to talk to you. Now."

His brow shot up, ignoring Will's confused look. "About...?"

"About what's happening!" she cried and grabbed him by the arm to drag him away from Will. "Do you know what's going on?" she asked, fear on her voice.

"No," he gave her a strange look. "Reg, are you Okay? If this is about last night, I didn't tell Will yet so...?"

"Last night? No! I mean what's going on here at school!"

"I seriously have no idea what you're talking about."

At that precise moment the Fishlike Triplets strolled down the hallway, passing right next to Warren and Regina.

"_As we live a life of ease  
Every one of us is all we need,  
Sky of blue, and sea of green,  
in our yellow submarine."_

_"We all live in a yellow submarine,  
yellow submarine, yellow submarine,  
We all live in a yellow submarine,  
yellow submarine, yellow submarine."_

Warren's brows didn't even rise a tinny bit to that demonstration of how odd things were that day. He just stood there as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"You're telling me nothing seems different to you today? Nothing odd, rare, peculiar?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Is this a trick question? Is there something you think I should know...?"

"No, Warren..." she was totally freaking out now. People were singing. And she was the only one that found something strange about that! It must be the work of a villain, someone who'd think it was funny to place a spell or something on the students of Sky High. "There's something going on..."

She explained him her thinking. It took her a while to make him understand that it was not normal that people were singing just like that. He was convinced noting was wrong, and she was beginning to believe everybody else did too. Warren only came to his senses and realized something was wrong when Regina shook him and commanded him to listen to her carefully.

"It's like a musical then?" he asked when they were rushing late to their first class. "And we're all under some kind of spell that won't let us know where singing like fools?"

"Yes, but we need to find out if it only affects students. We need to go to Boom or Principal Powers and tell them what's going on..."

"_Number 1,"_ was singing Mr. Brown as they walked in Hero Protective Law.

_"You have the right not to be killed  
Murder is a crime!  
Unless it was done by a  
Policeman or aristocrat  
Know your rights."_

_"And number 2  
You have the right to food money  
Providing of course you  
Dont mind a little  
Investigation, humiliation  
And if you cross your fingers  
Rehabilitation."_

_"Know your rights  
These are your rights."_

"So much for only the students being affected..." Warren muttered.

"Warren was the first you freed from the hypnotic charm?" Mrs. Ferraro asked, back in the present.

"Yes. I told him to listen."

"You mean you _commanded_ him to listen to you."

Regina nodded.

"Did you tried doing the same with the rest of the students?"

"Yes, but they wouldn't listen at first," she confessed, her face growing red.

"But it was easy for you to bring Warren back to his senses."

"Warren was paying attention."

"And everyone else wasn't?"

"Hu-hum..."

THE DAY OF THE INCIDENT. LUNCH TIME.

"So are you going to tell me what's going on between you and Regina?" Will asked.

"There's nothing going on," Warren replied, distracted looking for someone in the crowd.

"Yeah, right. You've been abnormally cheery this past week, and she broke up with Culpepper..."

"Will," Warren began threateningly.

"There's nothing wrong in liking her," he assured, misunderstanding his friend. "Look at me and Layla, for instance. Isn't she beautiful?"

Will fixed his eyes on her, standing in line with a plastic tray on her hands, waiting to pick up her lunch. He sighed and smiled.

"_Isn't she lovely  
Isn't she wonderful  
Isn't she precious  
The best in the whole world  
I never thought friends could grow such love  
Making us the more in love  
But isn't she lovely made for me."_

_He got up and walked the distance toward her. They then started dancing around the cafeteria, as if they were in some sort of ball. He didn't notice Warren's embarrassed face as he watched his best friend cross the cafeteria singing up his lungs.  
__  
"Isn't she pretty  
Truly the angels best  
Boy, I'm so happy  
I have been heaven blessed  
I can't believe I was so blind  
Once thinking of another one  
But isn't she lovely made to love."_

Layla smiled sweetly and broke the hold to walk away a few steps and then the music changed, became faster.

_"Hey... Layla!_  
_The stars are about to fall  
__So what d'you say... Layla?"_ Will finished with some tricky dancing on his own.

"_I'm a high school lover,"_ She started, strolling gracefully around the cafeteria._ "And you're my favorite flavor  
Love is all, all my soul  
You're my playground love."_

_"Yet my hands are shaking  
I feel my body remains, themes no matter, I'm on fire_

_"On the playground, love."_they finished together, Will holding her from behind.

_"Anytime, anyway,"_

_"You're my playground love."_

"This is getting off hands!" Regina said behind Warren, showing up just then. He turned around. "What are we going to do?"

"Let's go see Powers. She must be in her office."And Regina," he said suddenly as the they left the cafeteria. "If I for some reason start singing, please lock me inside a closet and let me bare my shame alone."

"It'd be cute to hear you sing," she smiled.

"I'm not cute."

"You can say that, but I happen to know better," she grinned. Luckily the hallway was empty.

Principal Powers office, on the other hand, was not. Just as they got there the door opened and four students were being led out by the Principal. They all looked chagrined. Obviously, the had been under some sort of reprimand.

"_Every breath you take,"_ she was singing.

_  
__"Every move you make  
Every bond you break  
Every step you take  
I'll be watching you."_

"_Every single day  
Every word you say  
Every game you play  
Every night you stay  
I'll be watching you"_

_"I'll be watching you  
I'll be watching you..."_

As the last student left the room she cried, "Don't forget to go to detention!" she then turned to Warren and Regina standing there. "Can I help you?"

"Yes," Regina said. "The school in under some sort of hypnotic charm."

"What...?"

"It's making everybody think we're in a musical! Students, teachers, I even heard the janitor singing _Smells like teen spirit_ earlier!"

"I'm sorry, I haven't noticed anything strange... or people singing?" she smiled. "Is this a joke? Did your uncle put you up for this?"

"No! I'm telling you the truth! You were singing just then!" Regina tried to convince her.

Principal Powers gave her and odd look, as if she were doubting Regina's mental health. "Am I singing now, dear?" she inquired carefully.

"I'm not crazy!"

"I didn't say that," she smiled a shaky smile. "Why don't I go find your uncle?"

"We'll wait here," Warren cut in and dragged Regina away from a very confused Principal Powers.

"No! She needs to understand, Warren! How are we going to find who's doing this if no teacher believe us?"

"It sure won't help if you're sent to a shrink," he said. "What we need to do is get in the school records and find if there's a student that could be doing this other than you..."

"Wait, what?" she stopped and stared at him in disbelief. "You actually think I could've done this?"

"That's your power, to make people do stuff. And need I remind you were the only one so far in noticing something was going on?"

"I didn't do this!"

"And I believe you but maybe it was someone with a power similar to yours or maybe you did it subconsciously so you wouldn't remember..." he suggested.

"I can't believe what you're saying," she walked past him, arm crossed. "You don't trust me!"

"Regina come on!" he followed her and blocked her way. "You don't trust me either, so what's new?"

"Shut up, Warren!"

"I'm not saying you did it on purpose!" he claimed as he followed her.

"I don't care what... what're you doing?" he had grabbed her by the arm and was yanking her to the principal's office, which was empty at the moment.

"_Walk right in, sit on down  
And make yourself at home," _he pushed her gently to a chair.

"_Come on baby, you're just like me  
And you hate to be alone."_

_"It's funny how things go around  
It's crazy but it's true  
This place is empty, oh so empty  
It's empty without you."_

"Oh, God, make stop!" he cried, shutting his mouth with his hands.

"Stop singing!" she tried.

_"Come on, bare your breasts  
And make me feel at home  
You and me we're just like all the rest  
And we don't want to be alone."  
_

"I don't think I like where this song is going," she stated offended.

He stared at her doing the impossible to keep the words from going out of his mouth. Suddenly she remembered what he'd ask her.

"Okay, I'm gonna lock you now."

She rushed him to the closet and locked him inside it. Regina waited five whole minutes before she opened the door and peaked inside. She found Warren leaning on the wall, frowning.

"If I'm fully aware that we're under a charm, why do I still have to sing? Why aren't you singing?"

"It's not because I'm doing this," she told him, rounding the desk and sitting in the armchair behind it. "If whoever is doing this has a power like mine then I'm immune. Now, let's find out who that might be."

After some typing Regina reached some sort of "Google" to sort out students according to their names, families, grades, detentions, and, of course, powers.

"So which power do we enter?" Warren asked looking at the screen. "Persuasion?"

"No, that'd be too specific. You see, powers are divided in two mayor groups, the actives and the passives. Active powers are the ones that have a physical manifestation and direct consequences," she explained. "Also, there are two kind of active powers, the elemental, anything that resembles nature like pyros, cryos, weather controllers, or the molecular, the ones that cause a molecular reaction, like the power to controll any kind of energy, or the powers which involve molecular change, like flying, shapeshifting or super strength."

"And what about passives?"

"Most passive powers have no use in physical confrontation and they have indirect consequences. Think precogs, their power only works for seeing things ahead but unless they do something about it there is no change in the world around them. Now, there are three kinds of passive powers, the psychic, like precogs and any power than enhances mental abilities, like omnilinguist," she nodded to Warren. "The sensitive, like empathy, and the physics powers, like telepathy and telekinesis. Persuasion is a psychic – passive power, but other powers can get a similar result, like telepathy or some kind of charmers."

"So whoever is doing this has a passive power."

"Definitely," Regina typed in the word and pressed enter. "Now we wait and we narrow it down till we find our guy."

The screen was filled with at least a hundred names, each one of then linked to their respective file.

"There are too many..." Warren said. "What's that?" he clicked on a round shaped with a sword-like thingy inside on the left of the screen. The new page was another searching program, except instead of putting names or powers to find a student you had to describe an event. "I think this fits with what we need."

"Yeah. They must be used to having freaky things happening in a school of super heroes," Regina guessed as she typed in what was going on that day. "This must point out the most likely candidates."

And it did, with a score. Of the ten students the programme sorted only two had five stars next to their names, indicating they were probably the ones doing it, according to their powers and their background. The remaining eight were ranked from four to two.

"Apparently you're not the only one who thinks I'm doing this," Regina spitted out bitterly staring at her name at the head of the list.

Boomowski, Regina R. *****

Karnical, Steven P. *****

Hazec, Megan T. ****

Smith, Nathan ****

Marquez, Melanie A. ****

O'Connor, Jake J. ***

Telly, Marcus ***

Stern, Brandon C. ***

Carter, Sarah **

Sorelli, John Jr. **

"You scored as much as Karnical did. Let's see his file."

Steven Karnical was an illusionist, he could project extremely realistic illusions into the minds of others and out of self. His power was really wide, like anything he imagined would appear in the world. But something just didn't fit in; if it was all an illusion, where were the actual students and teachers? Why weren't Warren and Regina with them?

So they passed to the next likely perpetrator, Megan. She was a good choice, if she were using Regina's abilities. But there was another problem with that too, because Megan could only use other people's abilities when they were present. If she hang out with them a long while she would have some residual powers, but they'd only last a few hours till they'd wear out. And Regina hadn't seen Megan at all that day.

Nathan Smith and Melanie Marquez were cousins, he was a hypno, being able to charm people into doing whatever he wanted and she could mentally possess others. They were both good choices, except Warren remembered he had seen Melanie that day and she had been singing. Her cousing might be doing it, but not her.

Jake O'Connor, Marcus Telly and Brandon Stern were telepaths, though their performance with their powers were at different stages. O'Connor was a Junior, but Telly and Stern were Freshman and unlikely to be able to hold a charm of such colossal magnitudes as the musical was without having their heads exploding. O'Connor, according to his file, had a liking for causing trouble.

Sarah Carter was a Sidekick. All she could do was make people want things. Why would the program think she was responsible for the musical? Because lately, Sarah had developed the ability to make people desperately crave for things. Maybe she was making all in Sky High crave for singing.

John Sorelli Jr. could control body functions, like walking, jumping and dancing but it was pretty much impossible that he could do that to all the student's and teachers at school, not to mention he couldn't control their minds to actually agree with what they were doing. Still, Warren and Regina decided to check him out too.

They ended up narrowing it down to Karnical, Smith, O'Connor, Carter and Sorelli. Neither of them mentioned again the possibility of Regina being the culprit

"I'll have to report to Principal Powers that you and Mr. Peace snuck into her office and read confidential information about the students," Mrs. Ferraro informed her as she wrote something down on her journal.

Regina gave her a skeptical look. "Now, why am I not surprised?"

"Sarcasm isn't called for."

"You're right, after all we we having _such_ a good time counting on my miseries."

"We can do without your satirical wit, too."

THE DAY OF THE INCIDENT. MAD SCIENCE LAB'S HALLWAY.

The sight of Megan Hazec was always a pleasant one, at least for most guys. It may had something to do with her innate sensuality, the way she moved gracefully, enticingly, her meaningful smiles that only the receiver could read and find the actual meaning. It's true Megan had a way of making people around her feel uncomfortable, saying things she probably shouldn't, but the way she looked was a whole different deal. And she really was up for it, she'd melt a guy like a Popsicle. Today, of all days was no exception to the rule, specially if you added singing and dancing like a diva to the equation.

Regina had caught up with her while in the middle of her song, with a bunch of guys dancing around her and doing the backing vocals. At the moment, the guy she was singing to was no less that their good friend Mike.

_"I never knew a guy who carried a mirror in his bag pack  
And a comb 'n the front pocket -just in case  
And all that confidence has you thinking you're the best  
'Cause Heaven forbid you'd show your vulnearable ways."_

_"Oh-oo-oh, you think you're special  
Oh-oo-oh, you think you're something else."_

_"Okay, so you're Mike Lainekerr  
That don't impress me much  
So you got the looks but have you got the touch  
Don't get me wrong, yeah I think you're alright  
But that won't keep me warm in the middle of the night  
That don't impress me much."_

"_Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-No  
Alright! Alright!"_

_"You're Superman!  
The Commander maybe.  
Bruce Wayne.  
Whatever!  
That don't impress me much!"_

He was certainly not enjoying the song. The guys with the vocals kept singing the chorus, waiting for Megan to continue. Only she was coming off and staring pointedly at Regina only a few feet away from her.

The song faded till it ended completely and the dancers/backing vocals also returned to their respective activities, again, none noticing anything out of place. Megan came to her, dread in her face.

"Please tell me I just imagined that," she said as she reached her friend.

"If I tell I'd be lying to you... how did you come off of it so quickly?" Regina asked.

"You were within ten feet from me," she shrugged. "Your power kicked in, so you're doing this, right?"

"No! I'm just immune o it cuz whoever is doing this has a power similar to mine."

Megan pinned her with a skeptical look, as if she didn't believe a word she was saying.

"Listen, I need your help," Regina went on. Any kind of grudge she might be holding against Megan for utterly distrusting her would have to wait until the musical was over.

She explained everything to her such as she had done with Warren, and added all the information she had of the possible culprits. Even though she firmly believed Regina was doing it –and not minding in inform her frequently that she was, in fact, sure- she also allowed there could be something else, like, for instance, Regina being unable to make music. She agreed to join Regina on her quest for the culprits –was eager more accurately. There was only a little problem.

Megan may have seen some of the culprits down the halls at a point in the past years, but there was no way she had any kind of information concerning were they might be at the moment. Warren was searching the building with Will from top to bottom, and hadn't had any luck as long as Regina new. However, in a school full with super people, Megan was at a powers buffé. And the was one power she new could help them...

"We don't even have to talk to her," she assured Regina as they approached the three girls. "As long as we stand relatively close to her..."

The girl in question was on of Katherine Snowflacke's BFFs, the same that had been Mike's date to Homecoming and that had been so unpleasent with Regina on her first day. Her name was Elizabeth Columbus and along Katherine and their other friend Victoria Bell went around school not only as if they owned it, but alo as if they were royalty or something. It was known to the student body, actually, that they called themselves the Queens of Sky High. Probably it had something to do with all three of them being called after three great queens. How creative of them.

Anyway, the reason Regina and Megan were so interested in in her power was because Elizabeth Columbos had the ability of, inside her own mind, transforming her surroundings into a four dimension map, and just by thinking on someone she could see that person in the map, not to mention the easiest and quickest way to said person.

Standing withing reach was enough for Megan to take her power. She closed her eyes as soon as she felt it run through her veins and let out a gasp of impression.

"What is it?" Regina asked.

"It's so cool," and she grabbed Regina's arm.

Immediately, because Megan could share whatever power she was using currently just by constant touch, Regina's head was cleared with all thought. The hall was still there in front of her, with the windows and the doors, but it was like watching through an X-Ray, all the colors gone a nd replaced by either black or bluish green. The walls were there, but she could she through them, too. She felt like a bat or a dolphin or some other animal that could see, as she was currently, with her ears and her senses.

Everything was moving too, as if they were travelling through the map. But they weren't the map was doing the travelling, and Regina could only guess where. Suddenly, after the halls passed rampant in front of them, everything stopped and the room they were in was no less than the gym. In there there were four teens, all of them bright, electric blue. No more than a second later, she snapped out of it all.

She wanted to ask what had just happened, but felt too dazzled to speak. Thinking was already challenging.

"Don't worry," Megan was saying kindly next to her. "It takes a while to get used to other people's powers. I used to feel like crap at first, too."

"You don't... anymore?" she finally muttered.

Megan shrugged. "It's part of my daily life. If _I _can't put up with it..."

After Regina's breathing went back to normal they rushed to the gym where the culprit's were. That four of them were together as proof enough that they were onto something. Regina texted Warren and told him where to go, they were going to need as many help as possible and three to four were more encouraging odds to the girl's liking.

He arrived just when they reached the gym double doors. He was alone, though he said he had Will got the rest of their friends in case they were needed. Without hesitating once, Warren opened the door and walked in preceding the girls.

Three of the culprits were sitting on the bleachers, worry faces in them all. The fourth culprit was pacing up and down in front of them, frowing deeply. Their heads shot up to the newcomers.

"Are you the ones doing it?" Warren asked, right to the point.

Now, Regina didn't think there should be any asking involved. Just by being there together they were showing guilty behaviour. Besides, they computer and her reasoning had been conclusive, the was she saw it. They were guilty. Even now they looked appalled, if not frighten by Warren. However, they hadn't make one move to stand up and face their responsibility.

"On your feet!" she commanded. "Stand in line!"

They did so, without offering restraint. Regina grinned and mentally patted her own shoulder.

"We didn't do it!" Sarah Carted cried, tears running through her face.

"She's telling the truth, man!" stated Nathan Smith. "We couldn't do it even if we tried!"

"Then what are you all doing here?" Regina asked –more like scorned. She caught Warren's angry gaze.

"Explain," he said simply.

"I got to school this morning and noticed people singing," Nathan began, "Everyone seamed to be normal about it, as if they didn't realize they were on a high school fucking musical. Then I went through the halls and tried to find someone who wasn't under the charm... I found Sarah."

"I'd been hidding in a empty classroom," she added. "I was so scared."

"After I calmed her down we left the classroom and went to the principal's office, but in the way we caught with Jake, who was screaming like a crazy man."

"Screeming?" Warren asked looking at the blushy O'Connor.

"I thought I was going nuts," he explained chagrined. "I even tried to use my powers to make the people around me stop singing."

"Did it work?" now Megan's curiosity was playing a part.

"It was as it their minds were blocked to anybody who tried to put the charm down. I think the person who's doing it is the only one who can un-do it," he said, with a final sigh. "I almost fainted, my head hurt so bad."

"I'd been drawn by Jake's screams, and that's when we all got together," John Sorelli put in. "We came her to try to find a way out of this, since no teacher would listen to us."

The explaining was finished, but not quite. The four former- culprits shared a few glances that meant so. Warren saw it, Regina did too.

"What is it?"

"This isn't your regular mind-control freaky incident," Nathan warned. "It has make the whole school think we're in a musical, but it's given us free will to approach it, too."

"Meaning...?"

"Meaning whoever is doing this, is powerful in a way the world has never seen," Regina enlighten him, just before she run past Megan and out of the gym.

**so? I know it's kinda... _weird,_ the whole musical, but hopefully you had fun reading it!**

**I had to change some of the lyrics, so they'd fit better with the story. I remind you none of the songs I'd used in thins or in previous chapters belongs to me. The songs I used for this chapter are the following:**

**"All these things that I've done" - The Killers**

**"Where did you sleep last night?" - Nirvana**

**"Bohemian Rhapsody" - Queen**

**"Yellow submarine" - The Beatles**

**"Know your rights" - The Clash**

**"Isn't she lovely" - Stevie Wonder**

**"Layla" - Oasis**

**"Playground love" - Air**

**"Every breath you take" - The Police**

**"This place is empty" - The Rolling Stones**

**"That don't impress me much"- Shania Twain**


	15. We're all villains

**Hello everybody! I'm back after my month-long absence! have you missed me? I'm sure you haven't, just missed my regular updates, but well I'm happy with that being so.**

**you know how it goes from now, you red, enjoy and leave one big fat review! got it? ok then GO!**

Chapter fifteen: We're all villains.

"_Please allow me to introduce myself  
I'm a woman of wealth and taste  
I've been around for a long, long year  
Sold many men fine knowledge  
And I know all that's been and done  
Every little, disturbing fact  
Nothing from me you can hide  
Though be warned, I don't allow asking 'round  
Pleased to meet you  
Hope you guess my name  
But what's puzzling you  
Is the nature of my game."_

_  
__"I got stuck in smelly Nepal  
Then I saw it was my chance  
Shot the warden and his officers  
The secretary screamed in vain."_

_  
__"I met the Pope  
Held his faith in my hands  
When asked for God  
And I held my tongue  
Pleased to meet you  
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah  
Ah, what's puzzling you  
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah  
I watched with glee  
While Mindreing  
Walked the long way to jail  
For the wrongs she'd made  
I shouted out,  
Where's Gigi lass?  
When after all  
She was hiding, yeah."_

_  
__"Let me please introduce myself  
I'm a woman of wealth and taste  
And I laid traps for troubadours  
Who get spanked before they ask a thing  
Pleased to meet you  
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah  
But what's puzzling you  
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, darling."_

__

"Just as some villains have a hero in them

_Not all sinners are saints  
Yet here I stand after all that's gone  
Back into the right path  
So if you meet me  
Have some courtesy__  
Have some sympathy, and some taste  
Use all your well-learned politesse  
Or I'll walk on the other way, um yeah__."_

Surely, interrupting Evelyn while she was in the middle of her "conference" was out of the question, especially since she wouldn't take it so well. Call it need of keeping appearances, but it was more likely the longing for not exposing personal problems to public. Which was wise come to think of it, considering Regina didn't want the entire student body –just as many had gathered in the auditorium to witness the conference- believing she was as crazy as you could get.

_  
__"Pleased to meet you  
Hope you guessed my name, um yeah  
But what's puzzling you  
Is the nature of my game, um mean it, get down."_

She couldn't very well wait till the end of it, though. She _could_, but she wasn't willing to do so. It would mean Warren and Megan would have more time to catch up with her, and that was not an option. She might've out run them due to some miracle she wasn't to think about just now, but once they got a glimpse of her their chase would have only one end, and she was not going to be an easy pray.

_  
__"Woo, who  
Oh yeah, get on down  
Oh yeah  
Oh yeah!  
Ooo, who  
Ooo, who  
Ooo, who  
Ooo, who, who  
Ooo, who, who  
Ooo, who, who  
Ooo, who, who  
Oh, yeah."_

_  
__"Whats my name  
Tell me, darling, whats my name  
Tell me, sweetie, whats my name."_

The song was finishing now, thank God. She didn't think she could put up with any more of it. She usually loved music and liked to sing, but this creepy mixture of Vasseline dancing, Moulin Rouge song choice and High School Musical drama was definitely not of her liking. And her culprits weren't the actual culprits! Even when they'd been explaining themselves she'd known it, they may have a power similar in some ways to hers, but they weren't –nor was Regina for that matter- anywhere close to the kind of power and self control that could cause the incident.

There was always the chance that Karnical was the one, and she was determined to question him and find him guilty of all charges –after she got her reassurances from Evelyn.

_  
__"Ooo, who, who__  
Ooo, who, who  
Ooo, who, who  
Ooo, who, who  
Ooo, who, who  
Ooo, who, who  
Ooo, who, who  
Oh, yeah__."_

After she was done with her version of Sympathy for the Devil, Evelyn waved thanks to the crowd like the lady she was, in perfect accord with her shinny smile. The conference wasn't over, however, and before she proceeded to tell her audience about her getting back to the right way, Regina called her from her spot at the right of the stage, safely covered from all sight by the heavy dark orange curtains.

"Eve! Eve! Turn 'round dammit!"

She turned, and her shinny smile weakened for a moment with the surprise caused by seeing Regina standing there instead of sitting with the rest of the students. Evelyn turned back to her audience.

"I beg your pardon, but I'll be back in just a mo'," she excused herself gracefully and left the stage. He smile disappeared as she got to Regina. "What is the matter? Why aren't you sitting down there?"

"I'm sorry, I can't answer that," Regina said out of breath.

"You look terrible. Is anything wrong?"

Had Regina had a mirror in front of her, she'd cry. Her make-up was all messed up and so was her auburn hair after the many times she'd run her hands through her face and up her hair as a sign of desperation. She was sweating too, and her clothes were probably as messy as the rest of herself. Just by Evelyn's look of disapproval she felt ashamed; Evelyn didn't allow anything less than impeccable on herself and the people around her.

"I need to ask you a few things," Regina warned her, and, before, Evelyn could refuse, "What was my mother's power limit? I mean, how many people could she keep under her control at the same time?"

"I believe her highest mark was that of fifty-two people under her charm. She'd made a workers unit build the secret sanctum we used to live in years back in Massachusetts," The information came out of her, Evelyn's facial expression showing clearly she wasn't thrilled to share it.

"Did she gave them free will to build the sanctum?"

"Of course not!" she snorted as if that was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. "Mindreign had to tell them what to do step by step and the workers were under such a deep daze they couldn't do anything other than what she was commanding them to do."

"Great!" Regina finally smiled and released the air she was holding. "Now one last thing, have you ever heard of anybody with the ability to make people do stuff, but giving them also free will to face whatever task they were given?"

Evelyn thought about that for a moment, piercing Regina with her pale green eyes. "I've never heard of such power. Why are you asking me all this? What id this all about?"

"I promise I'll tell you as soon as I fix it," she cried over her shoulder while running away from Evelyn.

Those were good news. No, they were great news! Her mother was the greatest persuasionist ever, and she didn't have to power to do the musical, meaning she, Regina, couldn't possibly be doing it. Now, all she needed to do was find Karnical…

Warren found her first, though, as soon as she walked out of the backstage. He was with Megan and all the former culprits.

"Why the hell did you run away like that?" he growled.

"I had to ask Eve if she knew of anybody with the power to do this."

"Um, sorry, who's Eve?" Nathan asked.

"She used to be my nanny. She has powers too, she knows everything," Regina explained as she started walking again, closely followed by Warren and the rest.

"Everything- everything?" Sarah joined in.

"Well, a lot of stuff. She can't know about personal feeling for example…"

"We're in the middle of a crisis. Do you people mind if we focus on finding Karnical and see if he knows anything?" Warren cut in with his annoyed scolding.

"Steve?" John said. "You think he has anything to do with this?"

Warren and Regina explained them about the school program to find students and how Karnical was second best. Luckily, John Sorelli was a good friend of him and knew for a fact he should be at the recording room, facing the stage, making sure the school had Evelyn's speech saved on its records for future classes. They headed there all together –the former culprits not willing to be left out of the quest…

"Sorry," Mrs. Ferraro cut in with a smile. "Why did you go to find Evelyn?"

"I told you…"

"No, you told _them_ that you wanted to know if she knew about someone with that kind of power, but you didn't mentioned you asked for your mother first."

"I…" Regina scratched her eyebrow. "I didn't want them to know I was worried, even for just a little while, that I might be the one."

"Why?"

"Because… It's not pretty okay? I don't like people thinking I'm evil or capable of being evil…" Mrs Ferraro nodded, understanding. "Listen, I've come this far, do you mind if I get this over with, once and for all?"

"By all means."

THE DAY OF THE INCIDENT. RECORDING ROOM'S DOOR.

Having all the student body down in the auditorium made it easy to get quickly to the recording studio, and getting inside it, considering there were no teachers there to shoo them out of there, a place they weren't allowed to get in. Steven Karnical, on the other hand, was part of the authorized personal and so could easily come and go at his heart desire.

They found him there, sitting in a chair in front of a dozen of plasma screens, portraying the empty hallways of Sky High and many other recording devises. The walls were covered in DVD boxes labeled with date and camera number. The main screen reflected the scene below in the auditorium, Eve standing on the stage and the students and teachers avidly hearing her story. He turned around on the chair as he heard them in.

He was really good looking, she had to admit. Chocolate skin, aquiline nose, honey eyes and lips made to smile. He was actually half chukling, surely amazed at something they didn't quite see.

"Yo, man, what's up?" he greeted them, sparing one appreciative look to Regina.

"Hey, Steve," John walked to him. "Listen, have you noticed something strange…?

"Oh, you mean the musical? Yeah, man, is so cool. I have it all on record."

Seven jaws hit the floor in front of him. "So you're doing it?" Warren finally uttered as if he were missing something.

"Whoa, man, I ain't taking all the blame," he got off the chair. "I just gave them music. They were all singing a capella when I got here this morning. I figured it sounded better with some music on," he shrugged off. "And, by the way," he told Regina. "Great job, I never thought anyone could pull that off."

"No, no, you're wrong. I'm not…"

"Yes, you are," Megan cut in. "I can sense it, even if you can't."

"I'm not doing this!" she turned to Warren, desperation rising. "I'm not! I went to Evelyn and she told me so! She told me my mother couldn't pull this off!"

"What has your mother got to do with anything?" John asked.

"She was the greatest persuasionist in all time if you didn't know," Regina explained. "If she couldn't do it then how could I?"

"Just because she couldn't doesn't mean…" Sarah started.

"Yes it does!" she finally lost her patience. "If I were doing it I wouldn't try to stop it. You, on the other hand…" she directed her angry gaze to Steven Karnical, who in turn raised his hands as if that gesture would redeam him.

"I already said I'd put on the music, but I can't make people sing. You, on the other hand…"

"You think this is funny?!"

Had Warren not catch her, Regina would've given up to her sudden fury and and jumped over Steven, after she'd already sent him flying against one of the DVD covered walls, and even as Warren had a tight hold around her waist and kept her two good feet above solid ground Regina still had the intention to physically hurt Steven. Of course, breaking out of Warren's grip was no easy task, especially for someone her size. Holding her with both his arms, however, Warren was unable to keep her from verbally attacking Steven.

"You lousy son of a diseased bitch! Why don't you get off your ass and say that to my face again, huh?!"

The rest stood in their spots, not knowing what to do. "Stay here," Warren told them as he yanked Regina out of the room. No one followed them.

"Let me go! I want to kick his sorry ass!"

"Yeah, sure I'll let you go," he snorted.

"I'm amusing you, aren't I?" Regina snorted back, unable to see him from her current position but knowing he was displaying one of his best smirks. "Well, let me tell you something for the billionth time today: I'm not doing this! I wouldn't even be able to do this, and you know how I know that? Because my mother couldn't've pulled it off not even in her wildest dreams. Got it? "

"So?"

"So?! Okay, you really have it in for me today, don't you?" Regina sighed in frustration."I hardly practice my persuasion powers. This musical thing requires lots of control, not to mention actually having the ability to do it. It's beyond any sort of charm a mentalist has ever done, and honestly I doubt a seventeen year old girl who is barely aware of her powers could possibly do it and why haven't you put me down?"

"I rather like the sight of the back of your neck," Warren snapped testily, but gently put her down and let her go nevertheless. "What you just said is crap. Powers are unlimited, specially mental abilities. You're the one, period."

He sounded so sure... how could that be so? "Are you reading me? She asked, suspicion raised.

"I've been reading you and everyone around since we walked in the gym," Warren admitted, not sorry in the least. And then, more kindly "I didn't say anything because you were so set against it I just... I knew it'd hurt you. I know you're not doing it on purpose. It's like you snapped and lost it and didn't even noticed. Your subconscious is doing it, which means your subconscious is the only one capable of set things right."

Regina turned her back on him, not because there was something wrong with Warren, but because she wanted to hide the moisture in her dark gray eyes, the tears that quickly started to flow. It was true, she was guilty. And she didn't know how to fix it.

She felt him closing the small distance that separated them, his warm hand on her shoulder gently making her turnround. Warren was hugging her now and she was sobbing with her face buried deep in his wide chest.

"I don't want to be the villain," she just said in between sobs.

"We're all villains," Warren whispered in her ear after he kissed the top of his head. "And we're all heroes. What matters is who you let win in the end."

Warren downed his head and lifted hers with both his hands on her cheeks.

"_You're an emotion avenger."_

"Please, not again..."

"_You are the villain who sends a  
Line of dark fantastic passion,"_ Warren kissed her forehead and down her wet cheeks.

_"You know that I will surrender  
Know that I will surrender  
You want this fantastic passion  
We'll have fantastic passion..."_

Regina should make him stop, lock him somewhere away as he'd requested... but the feeling of his arms around her, of his body so close, of his voice so deep yet so soft was making her forget all her grieving... and think of other things.

_"You can feel my lips undress your eyes  
Why should ugly skin that never feels..."_Warren wasn't kissing her eyes though, it was her neck who received that privilige, as his hands carressed her back and arms.  
_  
"Never feel your fingers tingle _

_Tense anticipation on it  
This one is an easy one, _

_Feel the words and melt upon them  
Words of love, words so leisured  
Words are poisoned darts of pleasure_

_Come..."_

"Why are you stopping there?" Mrs. Ferraro asked after Regina's minute long silence. "It was getting so interesting..."

"What happened after that is private," Regina replied calmly.

"Am I to understand you and Warren made love within school grounds?"

"Yes, we had sex in a closet," she gritted out. "Satisfied?"

"Not particularly. I'll have to notify..."

"You said whatever I said here was confidential," Regina reminded her, arched brow.

"So I said," Mrs. Ferraro sighed. "Go on."

***

"Can you at least take away the music?"

"I could, but I'd rather do it when she manages to fix this," Steven replied to Megan's question. "There's no rush."

"Except fixing this is going to take a whole lot of time and effort," Regina growled from her place next to Megan, two bleachers under Steve.

She was braiding her hair after Megan kindly remarked –in private- that she looked like she had tangled into a cat fight and lost it. Warren showed some signs of said "fight" as well, but having short straight hair it was easier for him to correct that fact. Regina, on the other hand, had had to do without a brush and styled her curly hair into a tight french braid. Sarah and Melanie were amazed at the complexity of the hairstyle and how Regina had pulled it off without even a glance in a mirror. Warren had mumbled something about calling his friends and left the gym the moment Regina started raking her fingers through her head of hair. She didn't know it, but Warren happened to find her touching her glorious auburn hair extremely sexy and short of dragging her to the nearest closet for the second time of the day...

"All you need to do is join your subconscious with your conscious self. Then, you'll be able to access to the core of your powers and command the charm to cease," Melanie said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She had only just joined them herself, confessed she'd known the musical was something extremely out of place even considering Sky High's long list of oddities, but had been too busy having the time of her like singing all around the school.

"What you say is all right," Regina tucked the last locks in the braid and tied it. "But conscience and subconscious are separated for a reason and try to work with them at once is way close to imposible."

"Not to mention lethal," Nathan cut in.

Regina turned and glared at him. "Really? I had missed that," she snapped pouring sarcasm.

"Don't worry, silly!" Melanie smiled. "That's why I'm here for! Shall we start?"

Regina didn't want to, she wanted to wait to Warren's return. But even as it was incredibly hard to even admit that to herself, that she felt safer with him at her side, she wouldn't let herself wait. What was wrong with her? She had managed just fine her entire life without depending on anybody –except maybe Evelyn when she was a kid, but the point was she was getting too soft for her like. She had cried in his presence more times she had on anyone else, she had turned to him when she'd feel scared and confused at her first sight of the musical. Warren was becoming a very monopolizing variable in her life, and Regina didn't like it.

So she nodded stiffly and closed her eyes, desperately hoping Melanie knew what she was doing.

"What you're about to go through is like when you're dreaming and you know you're dreaming. Ever experienced anything similar?" Regina shook her head. "Well, don't be scared," Melanie put her fingertips over Regina's temples, massaging slowly. "Picture yourself sitting in a comfortable armchair, facing a wall. Now, at first you thing the wall is white, but when you look closer you realize that isn't so. What do you see on the wall?"

"Branches and leaves..."

"What else?"

"A red-framed window. No curtains."

"Okay, what do you see beyond the window?" Melanie's voice denoted excitement.

"Nothing."

"Oh? Why don't you look closer...?"

"There's nothing beyond the window."

"Okay. Relax," Regina let go the air she didn't know she'd been holding. "I'm gonna help you through this one."

Suddenly Melanie was standing next to her shoving her through the window, which disappeared immediately and instead of facing the leaves-patterned wall she was seeing a large park. More like a country prairie, with the grass and the sky were neither green and blue, but colors Regina couldn't recognize, too overwhelming by half. But in the middle of the prairie stood a beautiful silver tree, full with silver leaves and glowing with inner light. All Regina wanted was grasp the tree, led by an irrational need to know it real. She was so close, yet every step she took cam along with a good amount of effort on her part. Her breathing became harder and the silver tree blurry, but it was still there. She took larger steps, raised her arms to shorten the distance, but there was something holding her back, like a leash around her stomach pulling back and back...

She was so frustrated she could've screamed. She wanted to reach that freaking tree more than nothing, but it was beyond her will. She felt so impotent...

And she was so close! Her fingertips were only inches away from the trunk, feeling the soothing heat coming from it. Just one more step...

"Reggie?"

Her eyes shot open and for a whole minute she really didn't know were she was. Putting two thoughts together was very hard too. Slowly, Regina became aware of the rest of her body and senses: the gym roof she was seeing, the long-distance voices she was hearing, her head resting over something she couldn't identify, but knew it wasn't the floor, in which the rest of her body was laying. As she took deeper breaths her head started to clear up and she became aware of other feelings, like frustration over something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Thinking about it was hard, too, so she gave it no more thought. But then she realized that strange taste in her mouth was nothing other than blood and suddenly afraid she shot up on her feet.

More like tried to, actually. Her body and head hurt too much to manage such a rush move. A hand in her shoulder shoved her gently to the lap her head had been resting and a voice she recognized as Megan's asked quiely "Feeling any better?"

Slowly, because each movement reverberated through her head, Regina sat up and faced her friend's worried look. "I guess..."

"Got a little man hammering inside your head too?" Melanie asked behind her, sitting with the others on the bleachers. She didn't look good, was pale and showed signs of nosebleed.

"A hundred, at least."

"I'm sorry," Melanie continued. "I tried to show you to the core of your powers, but they kept pushing me away. That's why you didn't manage to grasp them."

"It was the tree, wasn't it?"

Melanie nodded. "Your subconcious' symbolic representation of them."

"I touched it. Barely. You need to go to infirmary," Regina added, noticing Melanie's troubled breathing.

She smiled weakly. "I don't look any better than you do."

"You coul've been seriously hurt," Nathan said lowly, but nonetheless emphatically.

"It had o be done and something good good came out of it. If she had any sort of contact with her power's core she can control them. I'm fine," she reassured her cousin. "And I'll get better."

"Care to end this hell musical?" Megan smiled wickedly at Regina.

"Sure," she ignored the throbbing pain inside her skull. "The sooner the better."

"What you girls did was extremely dangerous," Mrs. Ferraro reproached Regina. "Mental stability is not to be tampered with."

"I know," she replied in a small voice, her eyes staring at her knees. "I should've known better than involving a stranger and figured a way out of it on my own."

"There's nothing wrong in trusting people around you," the counselor reverted from her previous tone to a more caring one.

"We could've ended up mentally disabled," Regina pointed out gravely.

"But you didn't..."

"But we could've," Regina stressed.

"All right," Mrs. Ferraro sighed for the tenth time since they'd start talking. "Go on."

***

"I want you to stop singing!" Regina commanded at the top of her lungs.

"_No, you can't always get what you want_

_You can't always get what you want_

_You can't always get what you want."_

"SHUT UP!"

"_You can't always get what you want_

_You can't always get what you want_

_But if you try sometime you just might find _

_You get what you need!"_

"I need you to stop singing, dammit!"

"_You can't always get what you want!"_

There was no point in keep trying, they just wouldn't listen. It had been going on and on like that for the past hour, going through the halls of Sky High and commanding students and teachers alike to cease the musical. Regina felt so exhausted she had seriously considered going home and hope tomorrow thins would be different. She'd even asked Warren for a ride in his flying car, but he'd refused. "And let civilians be amused by a bunch of kids singing their way through life? You know better than to cause world-wide panic."

He was exaggerating. He had to be, there was no way this thing would spread world-wide. It was just impossible. So yes, she had managed to control around three hundred kids and some teachers in a way no one had ever dreamed before but there was long leap to consider if they were talking world-wide. It couldn't happen, it was virtually impossible.

But what if it did? The world would go on their merry way and sing whenever they felt like it because she wouldn't be able to break the charm if it spread that much. She even doubted she could break it for Sky High sole benefit. Damn her subconscious self.

Steven Karnical had proved to be help. He suggested the charm might lift if Regina talked to everybody at the same time and gave them all the same order. It was worth the try, so they all headed to the principal's office after creating some diversion so she would be out of

there. Warren said he'd take care of that and flamed his fist as he headed to the nearest fire alarm. The result was the expected and every classroom emptied, as well as the principal's office, who run to see if there was even a real fire. They sneaked in and Regina promptly sat behing the desk and pressed the button that would put her voice in the hearing of every corner of Sky High.

This time it had to work. She pictured the silver tree, the heat and the feel of it. She was in control now.

"Sky High," she started commanding. "This is Regina Boomowski and you hear only my voice. Noting else is in your head."

Her voice reverberated everywhere, indeed the only sound in Sky High. Even the fire alarm had seamed to quiet down. Confidence quickly wrapped Regina as she saw Warren, Megan and the rest falling into a groggy state, ready to take in her orders.

"You are not to sing anymore. The musical is over."

Sharp pain through her brain made her forget about any kind of celebration she might have considered after a whole minute of silence. Something wasn't right, and her head hurt too much. She pressed her skull with her hands, but the pressure just kept increasing. It was pure, blinding pain. She had fallen from the chair and was crying on the floor, unable to see, hear, think of anything but the penetrating pain.

She was going to die, she knew it. Her brain was boiling and would explode in any minute. She had to find help...

And then she heard it. Music. A bass.

Regina made an effort and opened her eyes to see trough the tears and saw them there, in front of her, slowly dancing in circle following the music.

"_Mm ba ba de  
Um bum ba de  
Um bu bu bum da de."_

_  
__"Pressure pushing down on me  
Pressing down on you no man ask for  
Under pressure - that burns your head down  
Splits yourself in two  
Puts people on the halls."_

"No, stop it!" she thought she cried.

Regina stumbled away from them, from the office, from the song. But there was no getting away of it, and she found out as she walked right in a crowd of students and teachers singing as well.

_"Um ba ba be  
Um ba ba be  
De day da  
Ee day da,"_

The pain was so terrible and it increased by the second. Couldn't they see she needed help?  
_"It's the terror of knowing  
What this song is about,"_ Warren was singing behind her.

"_Watching some good friends  
Screaming 'Let me out'," _that last phrase screamed by everybody.

She had to get away from them...

_"Pray tomorrow – won't be like this  
Pressure on people - people on the halls."_

She could barely see the way ahead of her through her tears and the blinding pain. They kept trying to grab her, and some succeeded.

_"Day day de mm hm  
Da da da ba ba  
O.k."_

_"Running around - kick your brains around the floor  
These are the days it never rains but it pours,"_

_"Ee do ba be,"_ Boom was now lading the crowd following Regina.

"_Ee da ba ba ba  
Um bo bo  
Be lap  
People on halls - ee da de da de  
People on halls - ee da de da de da de da."_

She fell to the floor a few times, only to get up before the crowd crashed her. She didn't know where she was now or where she was heading. For all she knew she could be walking circles and fall trough the edge of the school.

_"It's the terror of knowing  
What this song is about  
Watching some good friends  
Screaming 'Let me out'  
Pray tomorrow – won't be like this ah ah  
Pressure on people - people on the halls."_

Colin came in front of her, his face showing nothing but rage.

"_Turned away from it all like a villain  
Sat safely away but it don't work," _he sang.

_"Keep coming up with songs  
but you can't stop us, no."_

_"Why - why - why ?  
Sing! Sing! Sing! Sing! Sing!"_

Regina wanted to die and have peace, that strong the pain was. Her mind was torn to shreds.

_"Everybody laughs under pressure you're cracking  
Can't you give us one more chance  
Why can't we give this song that one more chance  
Why can't we sing along sing along sing along __sing along sing along sing along sing along  
'Cause you've no control  
And this dares you to face  
The frighting little outcomes  
And you have to pain your way through  
Ending the musical  
This is our last dance  
This is our last dance  
This is yourself  
Under pressure  
Under pressure  
Pressure"_

Somehow she'd ended up on the floor and the last memory she had was of the entire school staring at her, standing around her in circle, but not one close enough to call for help. They wouldn't help... and it was too late.

"How long were you in the hospital?" Mrs. Ferraro asked a couple of minutes later. She had given Regina time to recover after the outburst of tears and sobbing that had overcome her while relating the last of the events of the musical.

"Two days," she managed to say.

"And your eyes...?"

Regina look up to her with her now light silver orbs.

"It's called Stress Induced Melanin Dysfunction. It's very rare, mostly because the only people to get it are the ones who go through extremely traumatic experiences," she explained.

"Like what you went through."

Regina nodded. "They're going to stay like this for good. The eye color is mostly composed by melanin and melanin is closely attached to hormonal change. Gray eyes have the less amount of melanin in humans and after experiencing stress of this nature most of the melanin my eyes had just consumed. It took three whole days."

"Did your sight change as well?"

Regina just shook her head.

"I hope you understand why it was necessary to push you to talk," Mrs. Ferraro went on. "For what is worth, I don't think it'll happen again."

"You don't?"

"The fear you went through that day, and again just minutes ago by remembering it was as close as you can get to mental instability. But you never crossed that line. The breach in your mind was immense, both your conscious and subconscious were torn to shreds. I know that becuase I can see the scars they left. And I've never seen anyone come back from what you experienced. You should be a vegetable, but you're here only a week later and you're as good as new, if not a little emotional," she winked an eye to Regina.

"So that's it? You sign my release and we're done?" Regina asked in true hope.

Mrs. Ferraro took a whole minute to ponder and come up with an answer she was satisfied with. "No," she decided finally. "I think it'll do you good having some counseling. You can come once a week and we'll discuss and try our best to work out all those aspects of your life that need fixing."

Boy, wasn't she enthusiastic.

"Such as?" she asked in a deceptively lazy tone.

"Your issues with your parents, your rejections to the powers that link you directly to your mother, you inability to trust strangers, your fear to commitment... shall I continue?"

"You do know how to reduce self-esteem to a low ebb, Mrs. Ferraro."

**the songs I used for this chapter were the following, and no, I don't own them:**

**Sympathy for the Devil -The Rolling Stones.**

**Words so Leisured - Franz Ferdinand**

**You can't always get what you want - the rolling Stones**

**Under Pressure - Queen and David Bowie.**

**I hope you be nice enough to leave nice long reviews. I missed them so much!**


	16. Coma guy down the hall

**Hey everybody! It's me again with a new and right -on-time update. but before you start reading this chapter I would like to explain something about the previous one. It was brought to my attention by SilverMoon Gypsy that it wasn't clear enough exactly how Regina managed to stop the musical. I already explained the whole deal in my review reply, but I think I better explain it here too, for all the rest of you who didn't understand it also but didn't get around to asking either. **

**So this is how it goes. first of all, the night before the musical started, Regina's subconscious took control over her and charmed Sky High. she doesn't know how or why, and neither do you for that matter, at least not for now. the thing is that after Regina, with Melanie's help, made contact with the core of her powers -the silver tree- she formed some sort of bridge to link her conscious with her subconscious. Thus, when she was at Power's office and she speaks to Sky High, she pictured the tree and herself grabbing it. now, like it was said at some point during that chapter, it's highly dangerous to tamper with one's mind like that, and the result of Regina building a bridge between her conscious and subconscious was the pain she experienced, the one that she thought would kill her and that could've, should've, turn her into a vegetable. the last song was about herself, and how she couldn't bear what was going on. notice she fainted at the moment the song ended, that's because it took her that long to lift the charm of Sky High. when she said the words "You're not to sing anymore. The musical is over", she started the process that would get the musical over, which wasn't immediate because of the complexity of the charm. And she had to pain her way through it all because Regina, conscious Regina, wasn't prepared to take that much power, even if it was inside of her the whole time. and remember how Regina would faint so easily on the first chapters after she used her powers. she simply isn't physically ready to the exploit the magnificent potential she's got. and, after such traumatic experience, she got actually sick, and now her eyes are a very pale shade of silver instead of the dark gray she used to have.**

**that's pretty much it, I hope it was usefull to all of you! now two more things, I called it "charm" becuase I can't think of a better term, not becuase she's like a witch or anything, and the Stress Induced Melanin Defiency is not really a disease, I made it up. the closest thing I could find to it was Oxidative Stress, but it didn't aply to eye color. I wasn't going to have Reggie getting gray hair at her early age!**

**now that I'm finished, you can go ahead and read! and please, remember to review!**

Chapter sixteen: Coma guy down the hall

Regina had never celebrated any holiday. When she was three years old she remembered asking her mother once what was the silly, long white bearded man wearing a thick red and white suit doing in the middle of a park in sunny New Mexico, where their sanctum had been located at the time, having children sit on his lap and talk to them by turns. Mindreign hadn't hired a nanny yet, hadn't been able to find someone she could trust into their circle, so she was burdened with the job of taking care of her daughter, which included taking her out of the damp, dark sanctum they lived in. Regina's weekly outings to the park or to the city where always very stressing to her mother, since the girl was full with questions. What was that creamy looking thing other children were eating? Could she have one? Why weren't the other children wearing the same colors of their parents? Why did she always have to wear dull gray?

Mindreign's responses always came with a chagrined tone to it. But Regina would never forget her mother's opinion on holidays.

"It's a way to control the lot of them," she'd said that day in the park. "I couldn't have thought of anything better. They are puppets, told and expected to behave in a certain way in a specific time of the year, year after year, and never change it. They do the same stuff over and over again, eat the same food and have silly rituals, like honoring a dead tree and support the made-believe existence of Santa."

"That's him," she'd pointed to the man in the silly suit. "He's a hired actor who gets paid to be nice when he's surely nothing like it. Thanksgiving, Christmas and all the other holidays are just a waste of time and effort. That's why your father and I think we're better off without them. And so are you."

Anyone would've thought that was a lot for a three year old to actually process, but thanks to her mother's unwillingness to step down of her high stool and talk or reason in an easier, more appropriate way to her daughter's understanding, Regina had since even been expected to understand. And she did, as young as she was. She just wished she could as easily forget the happy face of the children in Santa's lap.

But even after she'd been left to live alone on the road Regina had turned her back on the holidays. The foster families she'd lived with had tried to make her embrace the holiday joy and spirit, but she'd just given them the cold shoulder. After all they were nothing to her.

Which brought in a new problem for Regina's new life with Boom. He couldn't get that she simply wasn't interested in celebrating, didn't see the point in doing so. Thanksgiving had been an awkward experience she wasn't about to go through again.

Her grandparents had come to visit and stay for a few days. Regina had tried to embrace for the meeting, this being the first time she'd actually _meet _them. She had see pictures of them and talked to them over the phone, but seeing them live was a whole different deal. By the time she heard them parking in the driveway she'd started to choke; this was a lifetime experience, what is she screwed it up? What if she reminded them to her mother and didn't like her? She should've just told Boom she wasn't ready for this and to sent his parents on their way back home instantly! But there was no way in hell that he'd agree to that. He'd just shrugged off her worries and tell her to be a man.

She was such a coward, she didn't mind admitting it. She did however resisted the urge to duck under the parlor couch when she saw the front door opening and the elderly couple hurriedly coming in acompanied by Boom.

The man was as tall as Boom, the same brown hair, albeit gray in some parts, bushy eyebrows and determined jaw. His eyes, unlike his son's, were pale green, and sparkling at the time. His bearing was definitely military and even thought he was on his sixties he still maintained himself quite well. The broadness of shoulders and the tight harms that squeezed Regina into a bear hug told her –if not that he actually liked her and wasn't going to despise her- that her grandfather still exercised. The hug overwhelmed her, and not because he was twice as big as she was, but because she had just experienced an enlargement in her family. This man was no longer her father's father, he was her grandpa.

"Let me take a look at you!" he pulled her aside just enough to see her without leting her arms go, a hapiness grin unable to leave his features.

"Marvin, you're monopolizing her. I want to meet my granddaughter too!" Lauren said as she pushed him off, gently, but he got the point and let go of Regina. "You're so pretty! Dear girl, I've been waiting for this moment ever since we knew you existed!"

Regina saw so much of herself in Lauren it paralyzed her for a moment. Finally an explanation of her height! Every member of her family known to her up until then had been rather tall, including her mother, but Lauren Boomowski was her exact same height, if not a little shorter on her old age. She was also auburn, though her hair was lighter and white stroked it in more than a few spots. She had the brown eyes both her sons had inherited, though hers were so full with kindness it made you feel guilty for every bad deed you'd ever done. She was quite chubby, but energetic in her embrace.

Lauren had grabbed her hand and wouldn't let it go even once they were sitting on the parlor. When Regina saw a tear comming out of her eyes her heart broke and squeezed her hand with a bright smile. Lauren got a tissue paper from a box inside her purse and quickly dried her tears.

"She said she'd better be prepared," Marvin mentioned. He placed a hand on his wife's shoulder. "There, there, my dear, it's not the time to weep."

"I know, I know," she sighed. "Come on, I want to know everything about you!"

Regina had a good time with them, getting to know each other and enjoying the love they so adamantly shared for her. It had been very worm and Regina found herself liking them and caring about them almost instantly, like she had right after she first moved in with Boom.

There were, of course, touchy topics of conversation that they'd rather avoid, and most of them concerned her parents and the years she'd spent either on foster homes or alone. But they managed to go through all that just smoothly, until Regina let it slip –while having dinner- that she didn't believe in celebrating any holiday whatsoever and that she thought Thanksgiving was nothing more than the celebration of the genocide of the Native Americans. Right after she'd said it, she wished she hadn't. Considering her timing, she realized that was a bit too brutish honesty from her part. She expected them to be angry –Boom had had a fit when she'd first told him what her particular thoughts on the matter were, but mostly because he couldn't come up anything to counter her accusations- but instead of that, Lauren had broken to tears, crying she couldn't believe her son and his wife had been so cruel as to ruin her childhood so badly. Now, Regina raised a mental brow at that, but kept herself from saying that even though her parents had been against holidays, she had had a lot of time to change her mind and her ways but had remained faithful to her beliefs.

The reaction she had been expecting however did happen, but then Marvin was cutting the turkey and they all ended up eating mushed turkey after he'd taken all his fury out on the poor thing.

Evelyn was blamed too. According to Lauren's reasoning, Eve had spent many a year with Regina and could have made her take the liking for celebrating holidays. To that Evelyn responded calmly "When Rockshiver and Mindreing would've seriously hurt me if I intervened in the raising of their child? I'm not suicidal. Besides, I'm on her side on this Thanksgiving matter. It's simply barbaric."

The mood had settled in before the Boomowskis left to their home in Florida, so at least they all shared an loving farewell, with the promise that they will return for Christmas with lots of presents for their granddaughter. Regina didn't have the heart to tell them she'd rather they wouldn't give her anything.

She couldn't very well change overnight and become what they wanted her to be, could she? Mrs. Ferraro seamed to be the only one that understood her.

"You never had reasons to celebrate," she said after Regina had filled her in of everything that had happened during Thanksgiving. "Maybe now you do," and then, before Regina could snort at her comment, she advised her. "Why don't you try this? View Christmas as the gathering of all the people that loves you and that you love back. Celebrate that."

Now those little gems of wisdom were what Regina was aiming at for, and with said advise in tow, she could at least try to make it fun. However, it was still a long way before Christmas arrived and other issues that consumed most of her time, more interesting issues.

It was traditional in Sky High that Juniors and Seniors go on camping together to some part of the country which its location the school kept hidden so the villains wouldn't go after the innocent, young heroes. Apparently it was some sort of passing ritual, where the Juniors weren't told what to expect and the Seniors were sworn to secrecy and that they wouldn't reveal to the newbies what they were likely to find on camp. But it was a frigging camp, what the hell was all the secrecy about? Why couldn't they just vent out what they were going to do and be done with it?

Of course, there was a perfectly logical explanation for Regina's exasperation over going camping. She was a Senior, but she hadn't gone through "the ritual" during her junior year because she hadn't had one, hence she was stuck along with all the rest of the Juniors not knowing a damn thing. And that bothered the most, not to be able to be prepared to face whatever was she'd have to face.

She'd always been prepared, before she came to Maxville, to expect the worst, and bad habits die hard. She tried to coax Warren, Megan, Kyle and Mike into telling her something, but they wouldn't listen, just smirk knowingly and tell her to wait and see, that she wouldn't regret it.

Like hell she wouldn't, if she was to face something she wasn't prepared for. She'd even brought her worries to Boom, trying to guilt him into confessing by claiming it was absolutely unfair that her entire class knew what to expect and she was left out of the secret. Again the knowing smirk, this time accompanied by Boom's very personal wicked look, and the four little words she was beginning to loath. Just wait and see.

The damn uncertainty had her scanning for desolated zones in the U.S. that the school might use for camping, far away from any civillian's eye, studying the natural conditions of every place and making lists of the things she would need to adapt smoothly to whatever location they might get dropped in. All the necessities lists put together summed no less than fifty items which would fit nicely in two camping bags. It was a lot to carry along, but she'd be better prepared than anybody.

Warren had another term instead of being prepared. He'd called her a control freak a number of times whenever her lists were brought in to their conversations.

"If we were to bring stuff with us they'd tell us," he'd reasoned three days before the camp's set date. Of course, he already know what the whole thing was about and therefore knew whether there was something to fear or not. "They don't intend to lose us in the middle of the forest."

"Aha! Forest!" she jumped joyfully, happy to hear him slip at least once and tell her where they were going. "I can leave behind the beach and mountain equipment!"

Warren's expression was imperturbable though. "If you want," he shrugged. "We may not go there after all."

"May not? You don't know where we're going either?"

"Nobody knows. They always change locations for safety purposes," he further went on. Of course, that made perfect sense.

"This is stupid," Regina snorted, kicking her bed. "That's it. I'm not going."

Warren came on his feet and left his previous position comfortable stretched out in Regina's bed. "What are you so afraid of?"

She hesitated for a second before answering his question. "Please, don't you know me already? The only thing I'm afraid of is trains and musicals," she joked.

He didn't buy it entirely. "Then relax. It's supposed to be fun, not something to get all tensed up about."

"I am awfully tensed... A massage would help sooo much," Regina hinted innocently while taking her own hand to her neck and rubbed it as if to ease some pain, looking right into his eyes.

That was a look he couldn't refuse. "My massages suck," he warned her as he moved slowly behind her.

"I'm sure you'll find your way around it, Sparky."

* * *

The next day, Saturday, a very relaxed and cheery Regina was going down the stairs humming happily in her way to the kitchen to get some breakfast. It was a beautiful day in the middle of December, white and sparkling. It had snowed the night before so every inch of earth outside the house was covered in pristine white snow, except for the entry way and the street. She'd planned nothing for the day, but then again it might just be better that way. Just stay home and watch movies with Boom and Evelyn...

"Oh my God!" she cried out in genuine surprised as she walked into something she shouldn't have.

"Reinie!" Eve cried as well as she pulled herself out of Boom's embrace. "Your uncle was just helping me up... I... I fell, you see," she explained weakly.

Regina right brow rose, accompanied by a very unladylike snort. "Right," she shot back.

"She slipped," Boom cut in rather swiftly. "Mrs. McFlawly waxed this floor just yesterday."

"Well, that explains everything," Regina walked to the fridge to get milk for her cereal, taking overly exaggerated careful steps so she wouldn't slip.

"Actually, since you're here," Evelyn smiled. "We're going to the doctor today!"

The statement was intriguing enough for Regina to momentarily drop the "slipping" subject. "But I already had my annual check up," she frowned.

"It's not a check up. You see, I've a friend, Sir Ulrich Montgomery, a physician, who's doing some trial and he'd like for us to be part of his test subjects."

Regina stared at Evelyn as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You want us to willingly be guinea pigs for a medical trial," Evelyn nodded. Regina's eyes narrowed "There's something you're not telling me."

At that Boom and Evelyn exchanged a secretive look, one Regina was no fan of.

"What's going on?"

"It's not been announced yet, probably won't be for a few more weeks," Boom said warily, taking one step closer to his niece. "Only the top head heroes around here have been told and even they have to keep their mouth shut. I wouldn't know if it weren't for one of Evelyn's friends who contacted her and told her..."

"Boom, take off the band aid and spill it out."

He frowned down at her. "Some super people have been losing their abilities. Not many, but enough so that it has the heads worried. Five in Asia, three in South America, six in Africa, seven in Europe, and so far two verified cases in North America, one in Canada and the other in Texas."

"How?"

"They're not entirely sure yet," Evelyn intervened. "This friend of mine is one of the physicians looking into this and he believes he has found something that links the victims, since they'd already discarded the environmental factors. All the heroes were allergic to penicillin."

"Penicillin allergy is one of the most common drug allergies in the world," Regina pointed out, the scientist in her peaking up. "If it were a virus that spreads by contact there'd be thousands, even millions of heroes losing their powers, not seventeen. Autoimmune, on the other hand..."

"You'll get to ask all your questions to Dr. Montgomery," Boom cut in.

"Yes, but I still don't get why he's asking for us to be the test subject."

"Well, he's not exactly asking..." Eve specified. "He owes me a favour, and when I heard of what was happening from one of my contacts I called him and asked him if there was a way to know we would be affected by this disease."

"Oh," that was very sweet of Evelyn. "So there's a way to know?"

"He's hoping to get us tested to see if we're allergic to penicillin," she explained.

Regina didn't want to point out that the probables were more likely that there'd be something else liking the victims than their allergy. But she didn't want to ruin Evelyn's good spirit. Besides, she was now really looking forward to meeting this Dr. Montgomery and ask away at her heart desire. After all, it wasn't every day that super people started losing their powers.

* * *

"Do come in, fellows. I apologize for the shaggy look of the office but then again I'm just borrowing it for the duration of my stay in Maxville. I can't be taken to account for Dr. Richards taste, or lack thereof as the case might be."

Sir Ulrich Montgomery, MD, raised from the cushy armchair behind the oak desk he was sitting in to greet them inside the office. He was a short man, about an inch taller that Regina herself. He was around his fifties, but hadn't got there quite well. A round belly tightened his pristine white robe and as he got up he had to find support on the desk due to a shortness of breath. His skin had a ashen look to it and his teeth were yellow; everything put together, he was probably a long-life smoker and someone who sure liked to overindulge himself during meal-time.

His sense of humor didn't amuse Regina either, who couldn't find fault or anything "shaggy" about the office. It was rather cozy, with lots of pictures portraying happy people hanging from the walls or standing on the desk, all with different frames. The furniture was simple, but practical: an oak desk with the cushy red armchair behind it and two other pulled in front of it, a folding screen that concealed one corner of the room, build in shelves in the wall behind the desk, full with books all of different shape and color. It was small, yes, but it had lots of light coming in from the double windows facing the back yard of the hospital.

"It's go good to see you again, Lady Evelyn," Sir Ulrich was saying while holding briefly Eve's hand. "You look stunning as ever!"

"Why, thank you, Sir Ulrich. May I introduce you to the Boomowskis, Terrance and Regina."

Boom and the doctor shook hands, while Regina was treated with a kiss in the hand –which got both her brows shot up- and a leery "How do you do, dear?"

"How is your research doing, Sir Ulrich? Any new discovery?" Evelyn asked politely.

"We've received word of another super falling," he said gravely. "This time a villain, from Foster Prison. I'm leaving to Addington this very night."

Regina's back stiffened. "Do you know who?"

"Insectoid Miscreant, John something-or-other, what's important," he went on with an exited gleam in his eyes. "is that he's allergic to penicillin too, hence backing up all our theory."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Montgomery," Regina said before Boom could stop her. "But isn't it penicillin one of the most common allergies?"

"Yes, of course," he dismissed her with one hand. "What's your point?"

"There should be more than just eighteen people sick if that allergy was the only thing linking the patients."

"They'll get there, don't worry," he smiled. How could he smile about that? "Besides, at the rate this disease is spreading, most super people will be neutralized in a matter of month, if not weeks."

Tense silence followed that statement.

"And that thrills you?" Boom spitted out.

"You need to understand, Mr. Boomowski, that once a super gets his or her powers there's no way to neutralize them. It has been neigh impossible to spare the super gene from one's DNA, much less studying it," he explained. "What this disease allow is is to compare DNA from the patient, before and after they lose their powers, isolate the super gene, study it to find at last the origin of these amazing abilities, and if we're lucky, find a cure for the disease."

"But..."

"Not all super people will be affected, or at least we're confident about that," he cut in. "Just think of what mayor breakthrough this would be. If we can find a way to neutralize abilities of an individual, say a villain, the world would be a much safer place! And, if we can take yet another further step," he added "we could find a way to control the gene, to our preference."

"You mean directing it?" Regina asked, now fully into this theory. "Like having it develop to certain kind of powers, but not to other that could be a complete danger to the world?" say, persuasion, she added to herself.

Sir Ulrich nodded enthusiastically. He looked like a child in a candy shop.

"And what about all the heroes who can lose their powers?" Boom went on, a bit heatedly. Evelyn placed a calming hand over his forearm.

"Like I said, after we isolate the super gene we'll be able to control it and give back everybody's powers."

"You mean if you can isolate the gene," Boom retorted.

"Well, we're very confident..."

"But this could still mean the total loss of powers for our community. We'd be completely vulnerable..."

"Terrance, that's quite enough," Evelyn said sweetly. "Sir Ulrich can't control the spread of the disease, all he can do is try and find something good in this situation."

It looked like Boom wanted to argue some more, but amazingly to Regina, he held back. Because Eve had asked him to? Now that was interesting...

"What are the symptoms?" Regina asked.

"It's starts like the flu, m'dear, tiredness, some fever, congestion, all responses of the immunological system against an alien body. Then the patient lose consciousness and enters a state of coma for exactly thirty six hours. When they wake up, all the symptoms are gone as well as the abilities."

It was amazing, in just a few days, their lives could change so drastically...

"Shall we proceed to the tests? I'll page an intern to meet us."

Ten minutes later and behind curtain Three the four of them were waiting for the tests to begin. According to Montgomery, he'd paged the best intern in the place, but he'd warned them that his attitude might change around the boy. Quoting Sir Ulrich, he didn't want to have the kid think too much of himself.

Still, when he finally showed up, he clearly wished he were somewhere else, or so his facial expression said so, so disgrunted and chagrinned. He was young, around twenty-four, and very handsome, with sandy brown hair, electric blue eyes and bone structure that went nicely with it all. His frown seamed to be permanent, as his looking down on people. He was tall, 6.4 feet and a stocky body to go with it. It was a wonder how he'd move so gracefully on the small space behind the curtain, not crashing into anything or going awkwardly about it as you would expect of someone his size.

Regina somehow found him fascinating, but, oddly, she wasn't the least bit attracted to him, probably because he was older than her and was completely out of her league. His face was somewhat familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.

"You paged, Dr. Montgomery?" he asked non-too-nicely.

The elder man sighed in exasperation and directed his next words to Evelyn. "American stubbornness, I can't get them to sir me."

The young doctor closed his eyes and Regina had the feeling he was counting to ten to control his temper before her talked again to Montgomery.

"I've patients, Dr."

"They can wait. This'll only take a couple of minutes," he dismissed his worries with a hand. Then he turned to Regina and the others. "Meet Lady Evelyn Trewlyn, an old acquaintance of mine from the motherland, Mr. Terrance Boomowski and his his darling niece, Regina," the young doctor nodded to every one of them, stopping one extra second in contemplating Regina. "This is Dr. Ray Brandsen. He'll be performing your skin tests."

"Skin tests?" Dr. Brandsen asked.

"Yes, we ought to find out if they're allergic to penicillin. They plan to travel overseas, one can never be too careful," the younger man nodded in agreement. "Run along, go fetch what you need, they'll wait for you here."

After Dr. Brandsen had run off, Sir Ulrich leaned closer to them, as if he didn't want anybody else to listen to his words.

"He doen't know anything about my studies with this disease and the super gene. He's only a civilian after all. Only a select few do, and I'm to meet them shortly at Addington. I've never visited the town myself, I hope the're a good hotel I can stay in."

Regina had it in the tip of her tongue to say Addington only had one motel, and it was as cheap as they come. But well, it seamed like the arrogant doctor would find one nice surprise in his visit to the prison.

Regina was left in curtain three while Boom and Evelyn were showed to the following curtains to have some more privacy. Regina was told by a nurse to take off he sweater and blouse and put on the hospital's cotton robe. She did so and sat on the bed to await her test to begin. The nurse came back again, this time with a tray and cleaning kit which she used to examine Regina's forearm and back and cleaned it with alcohol and then with a black pen the nurse drew four small circles in the back of her forearm with some letters attached to them. With a curt "Dr. Brandsen will be here shortly," the nurse left her alone.

Twenty minutes later Dr. Brandsen opened the curtain and crossed by it.

"Feeling okay?" he asked without looking at her; in fact, he was filling a chart, hers, she supposed.

"Yeah. Don't I know you?" she blurted out, unable to stop the words from coming out of her mouth.

Dr. Brandsen looked down at her. "I don't think so," he replied, and turned around to pull a chair closer to the bed, pulled the tray as well, full with syringes and bottles.

Regina persisted, narrowing her eyes and not taking her eyes away from his face."You look damn familiar. I'm pretty good with faces. I never forget..."

"I have a pretty regular looking face," he cut in dryly. "So let me put it in terms even coma guy down the hall can understand. You don't know me, you have never known me, and, above all, you are not going to know me."

"Okay, that was pretty rude, didn't your parent's teach you good manners?" Regina's temper rose, feeling insulted at the young doctor's lack of tact.

"No, they didn't," he shook his head, somewhat lost in memories.

Regina immediately felt the anger wash away and a new feeling taking over her. Sympathy.

"Well, who cares?" she said in a more relaxed tone, watching as he poured a single drop of the content of one bottle inside one circle. "Parents suck."

He chuckled at that. "Can't say they don't," he threw away the syringe, took the other and poured a drop of the other bottle in the remaining circle. He then looked at her right in the eye. Then, as if he were afraid of mentioning. "You've some really notorious eyes," he said, referring to the silver orbs piercing through his own.

"Thanks! I suffer from Stress Induced Melanin Disorder," she retorted sarcastically.

"Really?" she nodded. "I'm so sorry."

Why did he look so appalled?

"I'm okay, actually. They're kinda nice. So how's this test work?" she quickly changed the subject.

He got the hint. "We're looking for the presence or absence of specific IgE antibodies to major and minor penicillin determinants, that's what these two circles are for. We use benzylpenicilloyl polylysine for the major determinants and penicillin G for the minor. This is the major and this the minor," he pointed at the two circle at the left. "The other two are histamine and saline skin tests and they're are used as a positive and negative control, respectively. We first do the Scratch Test, and if it's negative we do the intradermal."

"When do we know if it's negative?"

"In about 20," he shrugged. "If the wheal around the drop is larger that 3mm than the wheal produced by the negative saline control, then the test is positive and you're allergic."

"Sounds easy," Regina joked.

"It kind of is," he admitted. "I had to leave a trauma case to see to you and your family."

She noted some resentment in that.

"Don't get me wrong, Dr. Montgomery is an eminence and I'm honored that he pages me to do a nurse's work... but he's such a..."

"Pain in the backside?" Regina put in with a smile to ease the young doctor's embarrassment. "Don't worry, I won't say a thing. I don't even like the guy."

He granted her with one of the sweetest smiles she'd seen. "I'll be back to see the test results."

One hour later Regina was walking down the parking lot toward the car with Boom and Evelyn. After the Scratch Test had been negative, Intradermal Tests were performed in the three of them. The procedure was slightly more uncomfortable than the previous one, having a small amount of the allergen injected just under the skin. That test had been negative too and Dr. Brandsen had dismissed them assuring them that they were 99 % not allergic to penicillin.

"I think we should go celebrate!" Evelyn said cheerfully as she tucked Regina's arm under hers. "My hotel's restaurant is absolutely delightful."

It wasn't just delightful, it poured class and good taste. Of course Evelyn would feel perfectly comfortable there, but Regina knew Boom and even though she knew he could be the perfect gentleman when he was set for it, she just had the feeling now wasn't one of those times, all itchy as his arm was after the test.

"I was thinking we could have a movie day," Regina suggested. "We have lots of DVDs and we could order some pizza..."

"It sounds great. I can even arrange a delivery sent to us from that sweet house you like so much," Eve went on as she sat on the passenger's seat, turning around so she could still face Regina.

The sweet house was no other that Nuage Chocolates, the most expensive and delicious candies you could get in this part of the country.

"I didn't know they made deliveries," Boom cut in while leaving the hospital parking.

"They don't, but they will for me," Evelyn said simply.

Regina held back a laugh. Eve was so funny when she wasn't trying to.

About an hour later and after she'd hang up with the pizza place, her cell phone rang. It was Warren. Looking around and making sure both Boom and Evelyn were elsewhere and out of hearing radium, she flapped it open and answered.

"Hi, Warren."

"Hey, so I have a proposition for you," he said, straight to the point. She could tell by his voice that he was on a very good mood.

"Really?" she smiled.

"Uh-huh. I'm going to Addington today and I thought maybe you'd like to come."

Silence on her part.

"You don't have to go visit your mother, I wasn't suggesting that," he clarified. "But, you know, it's a long trip down there and I could use the company. We may even be able to rent the same room as last time. What'd you say? You, me and the cheapest room ever is a winning combination."

Regina laughed. "It really sounds great, but I..." she swallowed the nod she felt in her throat. "I promised Megan I'd help her paint her room. In fact, I'm on my way there. It's probably going to take us all weekend, and she also has new furniture she still hasn't figured out where to place it... I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Warren said after a moment of silence. "You made your plans with your friend."

"Yeah, well, maybe you can come over tomorrow night and..."

"Yeah," why did he sound so mad? "I'll see you later."

And just like that he hung up. Regina was so shocked by the abrupt ending of their conversation that she actually stood there in the same spot for a few minutes, considering whether to call him back or not.

She wasn't sure what had prompted her to lie to him like that. She could've just told him she had planned to stay home with Boom and Eve, it would've had the same result. And why had she refused his offer so quickly? She could've come up with yet another lie to tell Boom and she'd be on her way to Addington to have a great weekend with Warren, but she'd chosen to have him believe she had plans with a friend. And he was angry at her because he thought that to be true! The bastard! She wasn't going to call him back, he could rot in Addington for all she cared.

Of course, there was other possibility Regina hadn't thought to consider for Warren's sudden rage.

He didn't need to be an omnilinguist to know when she was lying.

* * *

**hey, like it? hate it? **

**to all of you who don't share Regina's thoughts about thanksgiving, I beg you to please don't take it out on me! it just fit so well in her character I couldn't resist to put it on my fanfic. obviously, my personal thoughts had nothing to with it. I just figured it was her most likely response to the holidays. please, don't take any offense, it wasn't meant like that.**

**please review!**


	17. No one could be that unlucky

Chapter seventeen: No one could be _that_ unlucky.

The room was damp and dark and the smell was too nasty for her nose, making it tingle like she was going to sneeze but never got around to it. She wasn't supposed to be there... they'd punish her if they found out. Her eyes stung. The room hadn't been properly cleaned in a long while and was long overdue some airing to get the smell out of it... But they never used that room, never found any need to it, the house was big enough.

There were voices coming from next door, hurried voices. They were nervous, Regina was too. She shouldn't be there...

Were those steps she heard? Were they coming closer to her door? She should try and hide, just in case they decided to take a look inside...

Regina sat up in bed, covered in cold sweat, her heart pounding. She had awoken exactly when the door opened, unable to see who was behind the door. It was an odd dream, like it was a movie she'd seen before, knew what was going to happen, but had just forgot and needed reminder. But that was stupid, she had never been in that room, it was nowhere familiar to any of the places she'd stay in throughout the years. And the fear she'd experienced... afraid to getting caught... it was too childish for her, and even as a child she didn't remember having felt that way.

She was annoyed now. Here she was, sleeping peacefully the previous night to camp. She'd have to wake up very early in the morning; in fact, she only had about an hour or so before Boom burged in to raise her from bed and rush her to Sky High. Pounding on her pillow and promptly launching herself to it, Regina tried to get back to sleep. She had a feeling she'd need it come tomorrow.

Yet sleep wouldn't come, or so she found out when it was twenty minutes later and she was still rolling in bed, trying her best to keep her mind clear and get some rest, except her mind kept diverting to any kinds of thoughts. The one that kept coming was the strange power bounding disease and the effect it could have on the super community. Regina realized Dr. Montgomery's ideas of isolating the gene and controlling it at their heart's desire was were too idyllic by half, not to mention far fetched. And Boom had a point there, the world would be very vulnerable if most of its heroes lose their powers, allowing the villains a wider range of action.

She and her family were currently safe, if what triggered the illnes was being allergic to penicillin. She could at least breath calmly over that. But where did that leave her? Worrying over her friends, that's where. Megan could be affected, like Colin and Kyle and Mike... and Warren...

She was fine with Warren now. He'd come to her earlier that night after he returned from Addington, and other that looking tired and unusually taciturn he was okay. Regina just accounted all that to just spending six hours driving and the emotional tiredness after meeting with his dad, so she didn't even thought to argue with him after how he'd reacted on Saturday when she'd told him she couldn't go to Addington with him. She had come to decide that he had just been pist at the moment because he had planned a whole weekend for the two of them together and had ended up spending it alone and bored. That she hadn't been exactly honest with him either was another point in favor of dropping the subject and just let it go.

Regina heard his uncle's door open and close, and footsteps leaving the hallway and down the stairs. She hadn't seen the point i closing her own door since Warren wasn't sleeping with her that night so the noises just entered smoothly her room with no sound proof door to stop them. Just as well, she'd better get up than wait for Boom to get back up stairs. She grunted doing so. It was going to be one long day.

* * *

It was normally Regina's favorite time of the day, the first few awake seconds right before she opened her eyes to the morning day. What was troubling her now was the stiffness in her neck that extended all the way down to her left shoulder, the one pressing to the window. Her legs were numb at the moment, but as soon as she moved them she was sure the blood pouring down her veins would be one hell of a painful experience, especially since she had no idea of how many time she had remained sleeping in the same position. Not to mention the school flying bus' seats were nothing near comfortable.

She couldn't remember when she fallen asleep, but then again she had been very tired that morning having such a troubled sleep the night before. and she was used to sleep in buses so the feeling wasn't altogether new to Regina. Opening her eyes, she stretched her sore muscles as much as she could without clobbering Megan sitting next to her. One glance at her friend and found her coming out of some deep sleep as well.

"Hey," she said drying some sleepy moisture from her hazel eyes. "We're finally here."

"What?" she must've heard wrong. "Here where?"

"Camp."

Regina immediately turned to the window.

And gaped helplessly at her surroundings.

All traces of Maxville were gone. Parked in a clearing, at the verge of a forest the bus stood still. At the distance, high peaks crowned with white snow seamed to compete with each other as to which might reach higher the clouded sky, while the vast vegetation spread around and about them as a never ending spider web. Tall trees were predominant in the area, though you could still see bushes and small plants about. The limit to the forest, which the bus was parallel to, was delimited by large plain rocks, big enough to sit three grown men over them. The bus had long landed; Regina could tell that out of the lack of vibration under her seat. Looking around her, Regina noticed every one of her fellow students on the nus showed signs of having woken up recently.

"They doped us?" she asked, unhidden outrage in her voice. "Why would they do that?"

Mike, coming up from his seat behind them answered the question way too smugly to Regina's current mood. "So that we wouldn't know where we are. Duh."

"Laineker, behave," Kyle cut in with his characteristical grin. "She's a newbie. Newbies are basically babies."

"You're right," Mike sighed. "She'll probably want to race back home as soon as we get in."

"I'm standing right here," Regina reminded them.

"That's exactly the point. Otherwise it wouldn't be funny to pick on you."

Before Regina could utter a proper comeback she heard her uncle booming them out of the bus to join with the others in the clearing. Smugly grinning, both Mike and Kyle led the way out, closely followed by Colin.

"No way I'm helping you carry those outside," Megan determined before Regina could ask her to do so. "They're your rock around you're neck."

"You're such a good friend, it warms my heart," and with a soft wave of her hand, the bags started floating behind them.

Outside, it was chaos. Principal Powers –wearing a black jumpsuit with orange and blue seams and the school's badge over her heart- was standing over a stool two heads above her audience, which didn't seam interested at all in listening to her. The Juniors, easily recognizable in the crow since they were the ones jumping around excited and virtually responsible of the chaos, all carried bulgy bags, accidentally hitting each other with them and the Seniors as well, who were just standing there, close to keep warm in the cool morning, waiting for the rest to settle down and Principal Powers to begin.

A quick glance around the clearing, which was larger that Regina had first thought, showed her Sky High wasn't the only one camping. There were three other large groups about them, close around the large facility standing still in the middle of the clearing, all wearing the black jumpsuits and staring at the newcomers with a mix of anticipation, curiosity and, sometimes, derision.

"SHUUUT UUUPP!" Boom's voice reverberated in the forest, making trees quench and birds fly away. Regina though she saw a small mass of snow in swift motion down the mountain side. The Sky High students fell colectiely silent. "Now, I don't wanna do that again," he warned. "It can be dangerouns here. So listen up to the principal and lets get on our way."

"Thank you, Coach Boomer," Powers turned to face them. "Welcome to Camp Base N° 7, one of the country's best hidden location specifically created to the use of hero-training schools and agencies. Last year, as half of you well remember we went to a hidden island somewhere in the pacific. This time, however, we haven't left the continent. And that as much as information as we're going to give to you. The rest you'll need to survive you'll have to learn it from your surroundings."

"Please tell me she doesn't mean what I thinks she means," Regina whispered her plead to Megan.

"After you change and groups formed you'll be launched to your destination. Remember, the rules are simple and there's no need for you not to follow them."

"First, you musn't harm the forest. If you do, it'll certainly return to you whatever you inflicted it with. Second, no personal belongings are allowed in camp. You'll wear what garment we give you and you'll carry whatever we deem necessary. While you change you'll be assigned to a locker in which you'll put all your stuff in; when camp is over and you return to Base, you'll have your belongings returned to you. Third, and this rule is the most important," she glanced down at her audience with a deep frown obscuring her face. "There are other three hero training school with us. You will not be paired with them, but you most likely meet them in the forest. You mustn't engage in battles unless your units deem it necessary. At all times, you must consult with your units and follow their commands regarding the challenges. They were created for your safety and, should you dismiss them in any way, you'll answer not to me alone, but to the hero training committee as well."

"The ulterior goal of this camp, other than surviving through it, is to raid the sub-bases installed deep into the forest. There are seven of them, and the school which achieves control of most of them will be the winner, in case said school also manages to return here before the other three. On the encounter of sub-bases, members of the same school are not to battle with each others and the win of the base is accounted for the school as a whole, not to individual teams. In the case two or more schools get to the sub-base at the same time, they are supposed to battle with each other, following rules at all time. After one base is raid either way, one team or more must be appointed to remain there and keep it secure, for any school that approaches it can gain it back. The game ends when any team of any school gets to Base camp first, though I assure you the forest will not let you out until all seven sub-bases are claimed. After you change into your suits and you receive your personal units, the individual teams will be randomly sorted and we'll proceed to launch you to your individual destinations. I wish you all good luck."

Once inside the facility, Regina followed the other girls in her group to the locker-room appointed for Sky High's females. In there a tall, muscular woman who responded to the name of Sargent Lily McEarly, gave each and one of them the same sized black jumpsuit with orange and blue seams with matching leather boots and gloves, along with a magnetic card which opened their respective lockers. Parting from Megan, whose locker was somewhere in the middle of the room, Regina headed to hers, seriously regretting having to leave her things behind, and doubting the jumpsuit would fit her.

The thin, sleek material was nothing like she'd ever touched before. It's consistence was very soft, far too delicate, though it stretched a lot, or so she could see from her fellow students around her, stepping inside the jumpsuit with no trouble at all, fitting inside it no matter their respective sizes. After she'd done away with her own clothes and carefully put them away in her locker, Regina looked down on her suit. Surely, it was going to be very tight. The last thing she wanted was to spend God only knew how much time inside that thing without being able to breath freely. And the suit was very thin, highly inadequate for the low temperatures outside, not to mention it didn't have anything like a zip or buttons. Her fellow students were just shoving their legs through the collar and down on with no trouble. With a sigh she followed their lead.

And found herself wordless to descrive the sensations of wearing it.

The jumpsuit adhered to every inch of her body, like it was poured on her or something, like paint. She felt no cold, and amazingly light and unrestricted. The jumpsuit was like a second skin, like being naked but safely covered from neck to toes. She felt it change, stretch whenever she took a breath or lifted a muscle, so freely like nothing she'd ever worn. Her temperature was now ideal, if not little cool, which was exactly what she needed inside the stuffed locker room. There were no pockets in it, nothing to disturb the silky surface of the jumpsuit. Except, of course, Regina's own natural curves.

"My God!" Megan said coming next to her, her slender body outlined to perfection. "Your uncle is going to have a fit!" she predicted. "Wouldn't be surprised if he sent you back here and ordered you to put a sweater on and never take it off."

"Shut up. We're gonna be late. And he wouldn't do that..."

"You're right... Warren on the other hand..."

"Can we change the subject? I'm really worried, you know, specially cuz I heard Powers say "launch" in reference to us twice in her speech," Regina commented as they left the locker room. "I sincerely hope it was just a figure of speech."

"Hey, we're here, aren't we? You'll find out soon enough, do you really need to get all worked up?"

At the door, before leaving the facility, each and one of them was given with a leather belt and what truly resembled a Sidekick Mobile, except it didn't flap open in any way or had any button whatsoever. Just a thin silver, plastic devise, 5 inches long with a screen in one of it's faces. The Juniors examined in through and through –and so did Regina- unlike the Seniors who just wrapped the belt around their hips and attached the devise to it.

In mass, they adjourned to Principal Powers's podium to wait for the next indications, which didn't take long to come. With a curt explanation, Powers told them each team was to be conformed by three students, mixing heroes with sidekicks but not males with females. Each student would receive the names of the remaining two membes of their team, after which they'd have to get together and off to the forest. The teams were to be sorted at random, but it was guaranteed that close friends were unlikely to get in the same team, as it was the chance of getting teams composed only by heroes or sidekicks respectively. The idea, Powers explained, was to get students to interact with people they normally wouldn't, to create bonds. That was all right as far as Regina was concerned, that is, however, until she got the names of her team mates.

Katherine Snowflake and Magenta Stiles.

No one could be _that_ unlucky.

Hearing her growl, Megan's head perked closer. "Who'd you get?" Regina shoved the unit screen under her nose. "Ooh. Well, remember we're here to bond."

"Reggie!" turning back, and nearly colliding into the newcomer, Regina faced Katherine. "I'm so excited! Aren't you excited?" and, before Regina could conjure an answer, "Come let's go find Magenta!"

Locking her arm in one of Regina's Katherine strode away with all her might. Regina could still hear Megan's laughter when Katherine reached her next victim, who was, adding to Regina's increasing bad luck, not currently alone. Her friends, whom Regina had shortly met all those months back, shared Magenta's ogle expression as Katherine uttered

something about how excited she was and shoving her remaining arm into one of Magenta. Catching Warren's particular glance, his black left brow high in his forehead, staring at Katherine, Regina felt a blush coming up to her face, waiting. He finally looked down at her, and his right brow joined the left one, both arched, his chocolate eyes flaming inconspicuously tracing her body up and down, finally resting in her own silver gaze with a very simple message for her to read.

Gladly, Katherine was to excited to remain in the same place for too long. Regina followed with no qualm. After all, the sight of Warren in the thin, silky, poured on jumpsuit was just as disturbing as his heated look was.

* * *

"You are pulling out collective leg here, aren't you Boom?!" Regina screamed over the loud sound of the plane's engine.

"'Fraid not, Reggie," he shook his head. He looked at the first group. "All set?" three pale faces nodded. "Parachute's secured? Nothing loose? Okay, then go!"

On the same time, the three girls jumped off the plane and into open sky. The forest, 13.500 feet under them was nothing but a green mass, occasionally crossed by a rapid or a clearing, with the mountains close behind. Having spent the first part of the plane trip blindfolded, Regina and the others had no idea of where they were, not to mention they were being "launched" in different locations. The only reference point were the mountains –the Base was virtually invisible.

Already attached to her two team mates by one strong harness, Regina waited near Boom till it was their time to go. By now, she was possitive this was madness. They were making them jump of a plane into the forest, with no map, no direction to the Base, expecting them to find their was bay on their own, helped only by what they could recover from the forest. There was no time limit, Powers had said, they could be in the forest for days, a week maybe, because no one was going to go find them unless absolutely necessary. Getting lost was not an option.

"Ready to go?" Boom turned to her team after seeing off three other groups.

"Boom, I'm serious I'm... I... I'm scared. Please don't make do this."

Looking down at his pale to death niece, Boom felt his heart quiver. "Sorry doll. Off you go!"

One tug was all Regina needed to fall down the plane along Katherine and Magenta. The last, she'd noticed, was just as reticent to jumping as she was, while Katherine could hardly conceal her excitement. All the way down, her heart on her throat and her guts somewhere down her ankles, she heard her "YAY!!!!!!" up her lungs. With a gasp, Regina felt the parachute open automatically and the trees closing by.

It was a rough landing, if landing could be called at all. As it happens, they never actually reached the ground, due to the proximity between one tree and the others, their crowns were all mixed up together, branches tangled. Said branches had tangled also with Regina's team parachute, thus getting themselves hanging some good 15 feet from the ground.

Under them, the ground was hardly covered with snow, it being mostly retained by the branches above their heads. It was cleared though, no large rocks they could fall over and break their heads with. However, due to the cold temperatures, the ground was probably ice hard, surely dangerous to fall to if the landing was in any way mishap. The three girls stared down, considering their possibilities.

"I could shape-shift and crawl down the trunk," Magenta suggested. "I can check the ground down there."

"You'd have to walk over the harness and several branched only to get to the trunk. You could fall."

"I'll levitate you both down," Katherine and Magenta gaped at Regina hanging between them. "What?"

"Nothing," Katherine looked down and waved her hands in a circular motion. Over the ground, white snow started to form. "It's a mattress," she explained. "Should something happen, we'll land smoothly."

"Okay, when I say go, lose the harness," Regina ordered.

The mattress wasn't needed. Floating down like they were weightless, Regina sent her team partners down with hardly any effort on her part. She sent the equipment down afterward and only then loose her own harness. The snow mattress into which she stepped on was nothing snowy-like. It was as soft and mushy as cotton with the difference that it was just as cold as it would be expected.

They decided they'd best check their equipment before starting the journey to wherever they were heading to. Three black leather bags had been given to them; one was 3 feet long, narrow and cylindrical, the other two regular bag packs. The narrow one contained, surprisingly due to it's small size, a tent made to fit the three of them just fine. The other two bags contained supplies, one held the food and the other one the medical necessities and such.

"They didn't give us water," Regina pointed out.

"We're in a forest, there must be some river we can drink to," Katherine shrugged off. "Besides, there's snow all around us; that's edible too. Not to mention I have the ability to produce ice and snow..."

"We get it," Magenta cut in impatiently. "So what do we do now? Which direction should we head?"

Katherine felt silent, didn't have an answer now. Regina quickly took the reins.

"Base camp faces one side of the mountain, but not he one we're facing. I remember seeing two smaller peaks on that front, so I'm guessing we're on the other side of the mountain or looking at another mountain altogether."

"Let's hope not the last."

"So what, we round it up?" Magenta asked.

"That would be my choice," Regina looked up and frowned. "I can't see the sun. Can you see the sun?"

Two heads perked up, scanning the sky along Regina, none with much result. "We should start walking and try find some clearing," Katherine offered and the other two nodded. "I happy about this. Aren't you girls happy too?" Katherine started cheerily after two minute walking. "I love camping and I love that you guys are my partners! We're gonna have so much fun, like last year..."

It went on and on like that for at least half an hour, not that they could actually tell since they didn't have anything to measure time with. Regina and Magenta simply ignored her, humphing and humm-ing when Katherine demanded an answer. The settling around them didn't change much either; still large tall trees, snow and the occasional outburst of wildlife. The first deer they encountered, which ran rampant away at the very sight of them, was a beautiful creature, chestnut colored and with eyes that could melt the coldest heart. It wasn't odd that it had the three girls ooohing and aaaahing at it.

They eventually found a clearing and, if the position of the sun was well interpreted by them, it was somewhere around early afternoon. By that time and not surprisingly they were starving. Their last meal had been a light snack before they boarded the planes and in the middle of forest and with the perspective to remain a lot of time in it, that sure seamed like a long time ago. Selecting some food from the supply bag, Regina and the girls sat to eat in the clearing.

It was only after Katherine offered some ice of her own making to the other two that Magenta decided to ask what had been in both her mind and Regina's for the entire day.

"Why're you being so nice?"

Katherine stared back at her. "Would yo rather I weren't?"

"I'm just saying it's weird."

"It's not weird," Katherine countered. "I'm a nice person!"

Magenta lifted a brown brow at her. "You yanked me out of the bathroom just last week cuz you don't like to share it."

"I did not..." she replied weakly, her cheeks heating up.

"Did to. And threatened to freeze me in the spot if I didn't leave," Magenta added.

"I hate to agree with her," Regina cut in. "But I do. You're an awful person," Katherine's eyes widened to the extreme in innocense, at which Regina snorted. "Please, you tried, and failed I may add, to intimidate me on my first day at Sky High and treated me like crap at Homecoming."

"Okay, you two aren't really the epitome of all that's gracious and demure," Katherine shot back. "I just love camping. I had lots of fun last year and I plan to have lots of fun now. I don't see why we can't have a good time just because we aren't the best of friends."

Regina stared hard at her. "You never struk me as a sensible person," she replied, somewhat amused. "You surprise me, Frosty."

* * *

"It can't be."

"It can."

"It is," Warren gloomily declared.

It was. Standing freely on its rear legs, a miniature cub clinging to it's brown coat while another two followed by the stream, the 9 feet tall Grizzly didn't seam to notice it had company. Granted, Warren and his team mates were hiding behind a large rock, but with the creature's overdeveloped sense of smell it wasn't going to be that long before it found them. It was already making noises of unease and scanning the surrounding.

The sun was setting now, so they couldn't afford to waste any time before nightfall if they had any hopes to find a clearing near the stream and set camp. Jake O'Connor, the telepath, and Little Larry had been paired with him, a match that wasn't entirely to Warren's liking, but still, it could've been a lot worse. Little Larry had way too much arrogance to go with his petite body, not to mention he had a propensity to show off every time he got, like when they had come across another stream earlier that day and he had transformed into a rock so that he could leap over it and wouldn't get wet, unlike Warren and Jake who got waist deep in the icy cold water to cross it. Jake O'Connor, on the other hand, was of a very static personality. He was very impatient and hot-tempered in a reckless manner. After crossing the stream earlier, the team had come against their first challenge, a fairly simple one. Marked by a red flag, they went inside a gap in the mountain which lead to a cavern-like, completely light-less labyrinth. All they had to do, according to their units, was found the way out as fast as they could without retreating and with no powers involved. Warren had to admit the eye-oppressing darkness and the sense of isolation were no pretty feeling, especially after they came across dead ends three time in a row. They found the exit eventually, but not before Little Larry had started crying and Jake had a slight nervous breakdown. Warren couldn't hold any of that against them, after all, he hadn't felt all too comfortable inside the labyrinth either.

Anyway, when they reached their goal and emerged from the cavern, their reward as given to them, in the form of a virtual map loaded in their units. It only showed the way to the nearest sub-base and no sign of any other, but still worth spending half a morning in a labyrinth. They had been following the units' directions all day until now, with a huge bear and it's cubs in the way making it difficult to proceed.

"Maybe we should just round it up," Little Larry offered. "Walk a couple yards in the woods and then get back to the stream."

"Lets just get back to the clearing we passed fifteen minutes ago. We can spend the night there and get back on track tomorrow morning," Jake countered. "The grizzly can't stay there all morning too."

"Shouldn't the grizzly being hibernating?" Warren put in. Right then, their units started beeping. "_Retrieve the teddy-cub without harming the mother. Your reward will be inside it._ Hell."

"We have to fight a bear?" Jake growled. "A fully grown, 9 feet tall, potentially dangerous, grizzly bear?!"

"We don't have to fight it, you dum-ass," Little Larry scornfully glared. "Just retrieve the teddy-cub."

Before a very red faced Jake could utter an answer, Warren said. "Do you expect the mother to stand by while we got near to the cubs? She's going to think we're threats."

"The mother is probably just a shape-shifter, she wont hurt us."

"Okay, they you and ask for the teddy-cub!" Jake snapped.

"Fine!"

Little Larry left their hiding place and approached the grizzly all too smugly. The bear stared at him for a moment, following his moves with its deep brown eyes, immediately turning defensive after Larry's imprudent steps to narrow the distance between himself and the cubs.

"Let's wait till he starts crying before we go help him," Jake whispered next to Warren, both avidly watching Little Larry's parade.

The mother started roaring warningly, placing itself in between its offspring and what believed to be a threat to it. Larry didn't back down, utterly confident that it was just a show and he wouldn't get hurt. By the look of the grizzly and the following air crossing paw, Larry was way off the mark.

Warren and Jake left their hiding place and ran yelling at the grizzly, trying to get its attention. It worked for a moment, but not long enough for any of them to get to the cubs and retrieve the fake one. If only the one thing they accomplished was to make it angrier.

"We need a plan!" Larry screeched.

"_Now _you care to think of that?!" Warren shot back flaming his fists.

At his cue, Larry morphed, pairing with Warren to distract the mother while Jake surreptitiously sneaked behind it. Confused by the fire, the grizzly retreated to the forest, leaving its offspring virtually unprotected. It could hear, however, the lamely noises its babies were doing while Jake searched them, which enraged the mother. With a roar louder that the ones they'd already heard and with a paw that missed Warren by mere inches, it reached for Larry and entangled with him.

"They're all real!" Jake shouted. "There is no teddy cub!"

Without turning back Warren shouted back. "The first one on your left! That's it!"

Gazing at his team mate, Jake reached for that one. "How d'you know?"

"It doesn't have any body temperature. It's steel cold."

Securing the teddy cub in his arms, Jake run back to the clearing they'd previously found. Little Larry kept avoiding the grizzly's attacks and locked his rock arms around it, just enough to make sure it wouldn't get away, and carried her to the cubs. Warren's flames extinguished and he also ran away after Jake. Without waisting any more time, Larry followed.

* * *

The morning of the third day dawned on the girls as boring ly as it had the other two, exceptionaly uneventful. Their units woke them up at dawn as they had been programmed, rushing them to leave camp and be on their way. They had reached the foot of the mountain the previous day and now they were supposed to start rounding it, which was no easy task.

As they'd reached the mountain the setting had turned less wood-like and more rocky and the rocks were slippy due to the snow. Besides, there was a lot of fog in the early hours of the morning, which had them feeling their way at least until mid morning arrived.

It hadn't been that bad on the previous days, having the trees to cope with most of the snow and their way relatively free. But that morning, having snowed the night before, it was altogether tricky to walk down the mountain.

In order to make things easier, Katherine would melt the snow in front of them and Magenta, as a Guinea pig and therefore with a wider sight range, would walk in front of them, letting them know if there was a hole of loose rocks they needed to avoid.

They had only face one chalange in the three days of camp. All they'd had to do was convine their powers and find a way to cross a large and very profound gap in the ground. Katherine had produced an ice boat fit to seat Regina, herself and Magenta after shape-shifting. Regina had made them float all the way to the other end of the gap, then Magenta jumped to the ground and tested it to see if it would hold the three of them. Their reward had been candy, waiting for them in a plate hanging from a tree.

"I can't see anything," Magenta said in her small squeaky voice. "The fog is too dense!"

"Okay, let's stop here," Regina commanded. "If we keep walking we might fall or something and we can't afford that. Lets wait till the fog dissipates..."

As she was talking, Regina strolled to a large flat rock surrounded by fog which would serve as a seat. The ground was completely covered and slippy, with the snow melt to water. As it happened, one of her feet didn't touch ground at one poit before the rock, thus losing her balance, Regina tumbled headlong into a hole she didn't know was there. Regina smothered her instinctive shriek, nearly choking in the process. Luckily, it wasn't all stone she fell on, but a dirt incline with a few loose rocks; the impact knocked the air from her lungs and left her gasping.

"Are you okay?" Magenta and Katherine asked at once bending over the hole, careful not to follow her down.

"No," Regina gasped, struggling to push herself upright but crumbling very easily.

"What is it?" Magenta asked.

"My knee," she bit her lip and lamely added. "And my ankle. Hang on."

Avoiding the pain in her leg, Regina focused on levitating up out of the hole. It wasn't a very deep hole, but enough to cause damage if you didn't it was there. Landing smoothly next to her team mates Regina smothered another cry of pain as her leg touched the ground.

"Take off your boot,let's see the ankle."

"If she takes off the boot she won't be able to put it back," Magenta countered. "Her foot will freeze. Let me see it," Magenta knelt before her sore leg, her fingers feeling her leg. "No sharp pain?" she asked as her hands close about her sore ankle. Her fingers searched, probed gently, then, very carefully, he moved her foot about. Regina shook her head. Magenta's hands slid upward, following the swell of her calve up her knee. She probed and pain flashed jerked and hissed in pain as Magenta tested the joint. "Your ankle is mostly fine, just slightly sprained. Your knee, on the other hand, is wrenched. I don't think you're gonna be walking any time soon."

"What?! No! I'm fine really," she tried to stand but crumbled down as the pain washed over her. With an exasperated sigh, she hit the gound with her fists. "This is just great!"

"I'd get you some ice to ease the pain," Katherine said sweetly, "but I'm afraid the suit won't let the cold pass no matter what."

"You're not pregnant or anything right?" Magenta asked without looking at her, digging in the medical supply bag.

Regina lifted her brow. "No," she laughed, while mentally checking.

"Okay, then I'm gonna give you some ibuprofen," she handed Regina a pill. "One every four hours should do."

Regina swallowed it. "You sure pay attention in Hero Health, don't you?"

"We're supposed to," she shrugged. "As hero support we're supposed to be able to pick up the pieces and patch up our assigned heroes."

They remained in the spot for about an hour, till the road was fog clear. Having an injured member, it was now imperative that they reached the Base as soon as possible. However, since Regina couldn't walk, she had to levitate all around and as the effects of the ibuprofen started kick in, she found herself having trouble to keep a steady pace with her powers. Besides, although her pain hadn't decreased, she now felt her legg throttle and it seamed to weight at least twice as normal. When noon arrived they still hadn't reached the round of the mountain, and Regina was starting to think they wouldn't any time soon. Katherine had to produce a sled for her once Regina was unable to levitate on her own.

On the meantime, the pain increased. It wasn't Sharp, but it was enough to have her shutting her eyes and smothering her cries of pain whenever the sled hit a rock on the ground or moved abruptly. The ibuprofen was welcomed, but it didn't nearly help as much as she wished. She was having nausea and felt dizzy, but the worst of it was when they stopped for lunch and Magenta forced it to eat some of the dry food they carry with them, alluding that she'd get sicker if she consumed the drug with an empty stomach.

Regina tried fruitlessly to use her unit to communicate with the Base. It dawned on her that they couldn't be that irresponsible as to leave them with no way to reach them for help. So far the only people she could reach with her unit were Katherine and Magenta. It had taken them two days to reach the foot of the mountain, rounding it could take just as long, if not more. And once on the other side they still had to find the Base, and by the look of the mountain from there, it wasn't near. She didn't think she'd have the strength to travel that long with her injured leg.

As the day wore off, they had their first encounter with other group. They could hear them talking and narrowing the distance between them, coming from the woods. Wether they were from Sky High or any other school, Regina didn't care; all she wished was that at least one of them could teleport or fly or heal. Anything to improve her current situation.

The girls settled to wait for them, trying to decipher what they were saying, but only getting random words. Finally, coming out of the shadows of the woods, the newcomers emerged.

Warren stared at the three girls, Magenta leaning on a rock, Katherine standing by an ice sled in which Regina was lying, apparently waiting for them. Worry getting the best from him, he forgot greetings and closed the distance in a moment.

"What happened?" he demanded, staring at Regina. She was too pale and weak-like.

"I fell," she uttered, as if talking was hard for her.

"Did you break anything?"

"No," she tried to sit straight, but culdn't.

Warren felt hir guts drop to the floor when her heard the sounds of pain she was trying to smother. He looked at Magenta.

"She's taking ibuprofen," she said lowly. "It's not really that bad, just... recent," and then whispered. "But getting back to the Base..." she shook her head. "She needs a doctor."

"There's a sub-base up there," Jake offered. "We were heading there."

"The subs are well equipped," Katherine said optimistic. "We could call to the Base and have someone pick you up."

Getting up the mountain was tricky for everyone, specially for Regina. Climbing was out of the question, the last thing they needed was another injured in their party. As a Guinea pig, Magenta climbed to see how the rocks were holding on, and found some quite loose. After her harzardous adventure she reached the spot were the sub base was supposed to be.

"The base is taken," she informed through the unit. "But there's only one team. We can totally take the down."

With that, the rest of the team planned the raid. Katherine produced a stair case of white, solid ice to take them up faster and as secure as posible. Larry and Jake took care of the bags and Warren without a word to Regina, picked her up, dismissed the sled and strode along the steps, closing the party.

"How are you feeling?" he asked softly.

Clinging to his shoulders, she didn't see any reason to lie. "It hurts," she swallowed and looked down to the woods. "And I'm suffering from vertigo right now," he pierced her with his chocolate eyes. She realized right then how much she'd missed those eyes. "It's the drugs."

"Well, don't worry. I won't let you fall again," Warren half smiled.

Resting her head against his hard chest, Regina sleepily closed her eyes. "I know you won't."

Raiding the sub base was quick and easy. The ones holding it were from Super Star High and their team was composed by girls, two sidekicks with the ability to open locks and jump relatively high respectively, and a technopath. Since there was no electric device miles around other that the units and other than making them hit their owners, there wasn't much she could to prevent the taking to the sub. They did try to defend it by force, seemingly confident. One look and they discarded Larry, Magenta, Katherine and Regina, due to their looks and only focused on Jake and Warren, the last with Regina on his hands.

Two quick punches from Magenta, the sight of a not so Little Larry, an increasing of snow around them due to Katherine, Warren's flamming fists and Jake in their heads telling them to be off and quick was all it took to have the girls from Star High running rampant down the hill.

The sub base happened to be a two bedroom cottage, one with no communication channels, no phone, computed of anything whatsoever that could be used to call for help. It was cold inside, apparently the former team didn't have the faintest idea of how to light a fire. Warren took care of the fireplace on the living room/kitchen and placed Regina on a chaise lounge before going to take care of warming up the pipes and lighting the fire in the other two rooms. Katherine fetched some pillows to put under her knee and after asking her if she needed anything else, left to the kitchen, where the rest of the group were already searching through the cupboards full with food. Sometime later, Magenta approached her with a cup of hot tea Regina forced down her throat in order to avoid the brunette's impending rage. Besides, she was too weak to argue. Somnolence got the better of her, cozy in the well heated cottage, she gave in to sleep.

Two mugs of coffee in his hands, Warren left the kitchen and approached the bathroom where Magenta was inspecting the medical cabinet, completely unaware of the going on in her surroundings. Three loud knocks in the open door were necessary to bring her out of her deep abstraction. She looked up and saw her friend leaning on the frame and took the mug he was holding out for her. Crossing his legs and arms in a relaxed position that in no way reflected his turmoiling emotions, Warren stared down at her friend.

"What is it?"

Magenta looked down, something she didn't usually do. "I know I said it wasn't that bad... but I only said that to keep her calm."

Warren repressed a shiver that had nothing to do with cold.

"I think the knee might be broken," she went on. "There're enough supplies here to keep her stable and I'm gonna work on her leg right now but..."

"You're not a doctor," he finished her sentence.

"If the knee is as damaged as I think it is, a simple bandage won't do. And taking her out of the cottage is out of the question. She's already feverish; as weak as she is she might get an infection of worse..."

"I get it."

"And there's not enough ibuprofen to treat her. As soon as we run off, she's gonna hurt like hell..."

"Magenta..."

"I sedated her now but I don't know what that can do to her in the long term...!"

"Magenta!" Warren cut in forcefully. He reached out for her and took the mug from her shaky hands. "Calm down. The guys and I are leaving as soon as you are settled in. We'll get to the Base and send help immediately."

She nodded, retrieved her mug and finished it at once. She grabbed the things she had selected from the cabinet and crossed the threshold next to Warren. "Help me?" she asked in a more confident way.

Together they started working on Regina. Even as sedated as she was, she still made pain noises as they took of her leather boot and tended the ankle. As Magenta as said, it was only slightly sprained, she didn't even have a gash, so they just bandaged it tightly and left it to rest over a pillow. Her knee, on the other hand, was hard to get to. The jumpsuit was virtually invincible –cut the leg with scissors or rip it open were close to impossible. The only option left was to roll it up and, since the think material was so malleable, they managed to do it without getting too many pain on Regina. Once the leg was rolled up to her mid thigh, Magenta worked herself to clean up the knee and mend it.

It was bad, so bad it didn't even look like a knee. Now the size of a grapefruit, with extended swell to her calve and completely black and blue with bruisses, it resembled in no was to the slim, soft, fair knee Warren know so intimately. Also, a red looking gash crossed the middle of it and the kneecap, to go by the un-smothered sounds of Regina was somewhat destroyed.

Magenta cleaned up the blood and the wound with saline solution. Luckily the jumpsuit's material was made not to let anythin pass through it, so there was no dirt in the wound that could cause an infection. Even though, given the location and the width of the wound, Magenta was sure it'd need stitches, which she couldn't provide for her patient. Sky High's training didn't qualify students for that. she did however applied antiseptic ointment on the gash, pulled the edges of the wound together, covered it with adhesive dressing and immobilized the knee with a knee brace.

Regina kept on sleeping, completely unaware of the tenseness around her.

"We'll leave after dinner," Warren determined. "Rest now, we'll travel in the night if possible."

With those directions, Jake and Larry adjourned to the bedrooms, in hope to get some hours of sleep. Warren, however, remained sitting in an armchair next to Regina, his eyes never leaving her. Magenta came to her every now and then, checked her pulse, forced liquids down her throat. The hours went by, the clock ticking and Regina slowly coming out of her stupor. Finally, under heavy lids, her silver eyes opened to rest on Warren.

"Hey," he said, leaving the armchair and kneeling beside her. "How're you feeling?"

"Like I just slept through a whole day," she whispered groggily, her mouth dry. Warren helped her to a glass of water. "What time is it?"

"Around six," he whispered back. "Jake, Little Larry and me are leaving soon."

"Leaving...? Where?"

"Base Camp. We're gonna get you some help."

"Okay," she sighed and reached out for his hand, tangling her fingers with his. Warren let her. Behind them, Magenta watched. "Just be careful..."

"I will..."

"I don't want anything else to happen..."

"Don't worry..."

"I'm sorry I lied..." she admitted, more to herself than him, her lids dropping, giving up to sleep.

"I know," Warren took her fingers and kissed them gently before placing her hand over her belly. He retreated back to his armchair, frowning deeply.

How much time had passed after her talk with Warren she really couldn't say. Magenta had kept her sedated and when not, Regina herself felt she couldn't stand remaining awake. It could have been a day or a week, she really coldn't tell. The only thing she noticed, other that the excruciating pain in her knee were Katherine siting next to her, talking nonsense whenever Regina woke up, trying to have her eating and drinking, assuring her it wasn't long before help arrived, and Magenta checking out on her, serving her ministrations of Regina's knee, changing the dressing and trying the leg to see if any of it's former strength had returned. Down her stuppor, Regina knew one thing, and that was that her leg wasn't right and something must've gone awfully wrong with it. She felt herself feverish all the time, so there must've been some infection too...

Anyway, she was more sleeping than awake during her time in the cottage. She vaguely recalled talking to Warren, but that was probably just an hallucination. Warren wouldn't come to her knowing there was people around them that could guess they were something more than just fellow whatever. Still, it was a very nice dream.

Next time she was somewhat conscious she realized at once she wasn't in the cottage. It was too noisy around her, beeping all over and people crying orders. She also felt herself move, as if she were rolling or something. Forcing her lids open, she looked around her and found herself being driven in a stretcher down the busy hallway of a hospital. Looking up she saw a young doctor, sandy brown hair falling over his forehead.

"Don't I know you?" she uttered

He looked down at her and granted with a smile meant to take a girl's breath away. "I'm Dr. Brandsen. Remember me?"

"Yeah..."

"You were camping with your uncle and fell on your knee, in case your memories are a little blurry," he told her. "You've been under a bad fever these past few days, but don't worry, we're gonna get you as good as new."

He led her to a private room and laid her down on the bed with the help of two nurses. Regina noticed she wasn't wearing the jumpsuit anymore, but her own clothes. With a nod, Dr. Brandsen dismissed the nurses reminding them to close the door behind them. He then crossed the room in two steps and closed the blinds.

"So, tell me. How's the pain?"

"Sharp and numb at once," Regina sighed as he reached the end of the bed and felt the ankle and the calve, then lifted the leg altogether. She represed a cry as pain drenched her body. He laid the leg back on the bed.

"Can you lift you leg on your own?"

Regina tried, but moving it was nearly impossible. Bitting her lip and shutting her eyes, she shook her head, then felt his hand over her knee, searching probing, and probing some more. For a whole minute he dedicated to her knee, then retreating his way down to her calve and ankle. When her finished, Regina felt her leg a whole lot better.

"It's just a bruise," he shrugged, then nonchalantly, "I'll have a nurse change the dressing and the brace, but you should be alright in a couple of days. Just keep of your feet for a week and take these," he took a jar of pills from the pocket of his coat. "If you feel any pain."

"What about my fever?"

"Fluids. Anyway, you already passed the worst of it," he wrote something on her chart and headed to the door. "I'll talk with your uncle and have an attending discharge you soon enough."

"Okay... thanks!" she said at his bacjk as he left

Regina shook her head and laid on the pillows. Dr. Brandsen sure need to learn some bedside manners.

* * *

**So? What do you think? please leave a review!**


	18. The calm before the storm

**I have a perfectly goo reason why this chapter took so long to be up. **

**As you know, I usually update every two Saturdays or so, well, last Friday I had a little accident, and while my life was nowhere near threatened, my back got sorely hurt. seriously, I can hardly stand straight without going through a good deal of pain, not to mention I'm taking pain killers that keep me sleepy. I'm doing better now, at least I can sit straight. but regardless my poor back, I couldn't update because, as I mentioned, I've been either in to much pain to sit in front of my computer or too sleepy to to manage two thoughts together. I hope ou can understand, and that this chapter at least make up for its lateness. anyway, here you go.**

Chapter eighteen: The calm before the storm.

Just cross the street and ring the bell.

It didn't even sound easy.

Magenta Stiles was completely sure it would be anything but that. She liked things done her way; also, she preferred facing things straight and openly, never one to fear the unknown, but grabbing it by it's neck and say "what's your problem?".

Lately, however, she had found herself doubting. Doubting her education, her friends and, most importantly, her judgement. So, she set up to put everything back in its rightful place once and for all. The problem was, she couldn't bring herself to to ring the doorbell on Coach Boomer's house.

It was like nothing she'd ever imagined. Knowing Coach Boomer as superficially as she did, when picturing his dwelling she'd come to believe she'd encounter some one bedroom apartment, lacking of furniture with the exception of a t.v., a hideously plump armchair directly in front of said t.v., a fridge full with leftovers and an enormous amount of short shorts and baseball caps spread all over the apartment. That setting gave her some confidence when she knew she'd need it.

The sight in front of her practically made her quiver.

It was a home, a frigging home! An actual house with white walls and blue windows, smoke coming out of the chimney, snow dashingly accumulating on the gray-tiled roof, two family cars in the driveway. Not to mention the plenty Christmas lights decorating the whole thing, giving the look of a glowing house waiting to ascend to heaven, that pretty the arrangement was.

All that Magenta could see from her spot in the curb, just across the street. For fifteen minutes she'd been standing there, trying to find the courage she knew she had somewhere deep inside to cross the street and call on Regina. But she couldn't. Because truth was, Regina Boomowski was a little scary.

Magenta had decided their association would never be a friendly one after Regina's first day at Sky High, when their personalities had clashed. The confrontation had had her trembling with frustration for days. The sole mention of her name was enough to put her in a sour mood. The initial anger, however, had fainted as the months went by, to remain only a polite dislike toward the Coach's only niece. Of course, as necessity would have it, she had been forced change her mind long before she was teamed with Regina at camp. Even before the musical had struck their lives. And that precise event was what made her so scary.

She had proven, regardless whether she'd really meant it or not, that Regina Boomowski was not someone you wanted to mess with. And Magenta really didn't want to mess with her, but the conversation she'd been avoiding for too long could simply not wait any longer. And it would most certainly mess with Regina

Before Magenta reached a decision, she encountered a more pressing threat to her welfare. In the form of a pristine white Great Dane.

The beast was racing free toward her, its mouth opened in a never ending bark, its tongue in the wind spreading saliva, a loose leash flying on its back as if it were a cape. In less that a second, the beast was all over Magenta, its front paws grasping her shoulders, its head level with hers, its tongue licking her cheeks. It was all Magenta could do not to shapeshift and run the hell out of there.

"Lucifer! Down, boy! Now!"

The beast immediately obeyed and strolled back to its owner, merely feet back. By the panting look in the girls face, she'd raced after her dog in an attempt to stop it from assaulting Magenta. Not very happy at the girls absolute failure, Magenta glared at her.

"I'm very sorry," she said, a shaky smile in her face. A head taller than Magenta, she reached out to grasp her dog's leash. "He's ussually a sweetcake, but we've been away from our home, that with the holidays and all..."

"Whatever," Magenta wiped her cheek with her sleeve, not even trying to hide the disgusting frown to show on her face. After a moment, her frown changed, but this time it was focused solely on the girl's eyes. "Those contact glasses are great," she observed mildly, the incident with the beast momentarily forgotten. "Where did you get them?"

Despite Magenta's seemingly lack of excitement, she really was underneath. The girl's contact glasses, a very light shade of lavender, were flawless as far as she could see. They almost seamed real, if not, of course, for the fact that people didn't have eyes of that shade.

The girl looked down uncomfortably for a second before answering, and secured and checked the Great Dane's leash. "Uhm- L.A. Anyway, I'm sorry for Lucifer."

Magenta nodded and watched the girls go away; she'd have to ask Will if he could fly her to Los Angeles one day to get those contact glasses. Sighing, she turned to the Boomowski house and, before she could stop herself, crossed the street.

Her finger was on the doorbell before she knew it and, an unpleasant mixture of anxiousness and wary taking possession of her, she waited for someone to open the door.

Her first thought when that happened was that she had the wrong address. There was no way that the tall, beautiful woman with the almost white blond ringlets framing her face and he pale green eyes that stared back at her with nothing but kindness, could possibly have anything to do with grouchy Coach Boomer.

"Hullo," the woman said cheerily, her voice deep, huskily British. "May I help you?"

"I... ah... I think I've the wrong address," Magenta stuttered. "Is this Coach Boomer's house?"

Her in draw breath was a clear sign of sudden annoyance. "This house was owned firstly by Marvin Boomowski, back in the time when it was only just land. He built it from the ground and after his wedding to Lauren Seymour, he set the house on her name only. Many years later the deed of the house was given to their younger son, Terrance Harold Boomowski, who in turn put it on his name. The house is currently, on his ownership."

"Oh," Magenta uttered, realizing her mistake. "I just remember who you are and what your power is... Sorry."

"It's all right, just don't do it again," she smiled a warm smile. "Are you here to have a word with him? Terrance, I mean."

"Not exactly... I wanted to see how Regina was doing."

"You're her friend, then! Come along, everybody's in the drawing room."

She started into the house, leaving Magenta to follow in her wake, leading her to what was in fact a living room ordinary to the bone, while she went on with her chatter.

"My name is Evelyn Trewlyn..."

"I know, I was at your speech. I'm Magenta."

"Hmm," Magenta head from the lady walking in front of her. "Reinie never mentioned you... at lñeas I think not... never mind, we're here!" stepping into the living room, Magenta faced yet another setting she hadn't considered possible concerning Coach Boomer.

It was a warm room, and it had nothing to do with the burning fire on the fireplace. The walls were paneled in wood up till the middle, the rest painted in a very light shade of blue. There were flowers everywhere, on vases over small tables, hanging from the walls, over the mantel and even a painting of them hanging form one of the walls. The white lace curtains were completely drawn, but they still let a lot of light to come in from the white morning outside the house. By the window, stretched out in a white daybed, lay Regina, a narrow table by her side and an elderly man sitting across it in an equally white armchair, a set of chess in between them. In the middle of the room, sitting comfortably on the couch along with a chubby old lady, was Boomer.

"Everyone, this is Magenta," Evelyn said as she walked in. "She's here to visit with Reinie."

Four pairs of eyes stared back at Magenta, one silver glare distinctively more intrigued than the rest. Boomer and his parents got up and left the room, nodding toward her and greeting as politely as they could.

"Shall I pour you some tea?" Evelyn asked as Magenta hesitantely moved forward.

"No, I'm fine," Magenta tried a smile. She hated tea.

"All right then," Evelyn re-filled Regina's cup over the table by her daybed. "You're grandmother and I will be at the back parlor. We'll leave the door open, so just call when you need it," she said warmly to Regina, patting her forearm gently.

With a final smile to Magenta, Evelyn left.

Regina's gaze followed until she left the room, to then fall over Magenta. "Close the door, please," she asked.

Magenta did so, suddenly afraid she'd trip.

"We don't really have a back parlor," Regina commented. "Evelyn turned Boom's office into an office slash library and the library into her private sitting room, or back parlor as she calls it."

"She lives here, then?" she asked, still fixed in her spot.

Regina nodded. "She moved in after Boom proposed," at Magenta's boggled stare, she smiled tightly. "And yes, my uncle is capable of loving feelings toward a woman. Don't be so surprised."

"I... ah..."

"Stop stuttering. Sit," Regina nodded to the armchair across her.

Magenta sat and avoided the other girl's stare. "How's your knee?" she started on a safe subject.

"Great. I can walk perfectly, but my family won't let me."

"You can walk? What d'you mean you can walk?"

"You know, one feet after the other, just the way people generally walk."

"That's impossible," Magenta snorted.

Arched brow, Regina stared back, wordlessly demanding an explanation.

"I mean... I saw your leg," she blurted out, all traces of wary leaving her. "Your knee cap was destroyed. I was sure you'd need surgery."

"I know," Regina smiled. "I thought so too. It sure felt like that. But the doctor saw me, and after he started moving my leg, the pain and the swelling decreased. I don't even have a bruise anymore."

That was out of the realm of possibility, Magenta was sure. Regina, after all, hadn't seen the damage to her knee before she'd tended to it. It was torn in little pieces, Magenta was positive she wasn't mistaken.

She shook her head. "Are you sure you didn't scratched the bone or maybe twisted it...?"

"No," Regina retorted plainly.

"Okay," with the strong feeling that she was right, Magenta stared back at the other girl. "How many stitches did you get?"

"I didn't get any..."

"Oh, come on! It was 4 inches long and 2 inches wide, you had to get stitches!"

"Why would I be lying?" Regina raised her hands. "Once the swelling downed, it was barely a scratch and since you'd cleaned it and put it together so nicely, it was practically healed by the time we got to the hospital."

"It's impossible," Magenta determined. "You were in the sub base two days with us, you had a fever and your wound was infected. Say your knee cap wasn't really broken and it was just stiff and swelled, but last time I checked that wound was nowhere near healing. I saw it, Frosty saw it, and your uncle too. And it damn well wasn't just a scratch."

"I'm not lying, nor was the doctor, the nurse and the attending who discrached me," Regina said grasping not to lose her temper. "You can see for yourself if you like."

Stubborn to the very end, Magenta took the offer and inspected the knee.

Having to swallow one's pride and admit you've been wrong was never easy for her, specially since Regina was gloating over it. The knee look very much like a perfectly normal, healthy knee, only a fine 2 inches long white line crossed it. No strange looking lumps, no bruise, no nada.

Sitting back on the armchair, a frown clouding her eyes, Magenta pondered...

Regina had other ideas.

"Why d'you come here?"

She looked up and met the silver gaze.

"I have to talk to you," she sighed. "About you... and Warren."

Blurting that out just like that, Magenta had expected at least getting hit in the head with a blunt instrument. In stead, she had to give Regina some credit. She hadn't even breathed differently when she heard Magenta's words.

"Warren didn't tell me. I figured out on my own," she explained.

"Figured what out?"

So she had decided to play innocent? Well, be it as it may, Magenta only needed her to hear her out; she could deny her relationship with Warren all she liked as long as she got what Magenta'd come here to say.

"I don't know what sort of understanding you two have, but you need to know I'm not letting you hurt Warren," Regina's face remained emotionless. "I've been her friend for a few years now and I know him a lot better than you do, so trust when I say whatever you're doing to him, it better end fine."

Magenta stood up, unable to put her thoughts into words and remaining sitting at the same time. Regina's gaze following her every step, she paced.

"Warren's not the girlfriend type. I mean he's got a lot of temporary friends who are girls, but no girlfriend. And it's not his fault," she quickly defended him. "Once you passed his grouchy wall of protection he's a great guy... Do you get what I'm saying?"

"He hasn't had a girlfriend in quite some time. I got that much."

"Never. He has never had a girlfriend," Magenta stated. "The only girl he's ever potentially considered as a girlfriend was my friend Layla."

As Magenta's words sank in Regina found it suddenly had to breathe, like a claw had sized her throat and wouldn't let her swallow.

"Nobody knows. I only figured out because I watched him a lot back then."

"Watched him...?"

Her cheeks highly red, Magenta looked down at her shoes. "I developed a minor crush on him after we started hanging out."

The claw in Regina's throat tightened, the air she'd previously breathed was now ice cold in her lungs. Trying to keep the glare off her face was no easy feat this time. After all, jealousy was not a feeling she was used to, and she certainly didn't want to be any further acquainted with it.

"I don't know if Warren told you but... He and Will became friends in the most bizarre way you can think. Warren used to hate him cuz Will's dad had put his dad in prison; they actually destroyed the cafeteria once when they were fighting," Magenta smiled at the memory. "Anyway, Will and Lay were only friend back then, but Lay was already in love with him, except Will had a crush on another girls, who later turned out to be a villain... but that's beside the point. Layla asked Warren to Homecoming to get Will jealous, and since Warren wanted to mess with Will, he accepted. Only he ended up getting caught up with her."

Magenta sat back, Regina's eyes for the first time staring at nowhere.

"There was some saving the world involved at that particular Homecoming, which right now is pointless to explain; bottom line is, in the aftermath, Will and Lay got together and Warren and Will became best friends."

"Didn't he fight for her?" Regina asked in a small voice.

Magenta shook her head. "He wanted a friend more than a girlfriend."

"My point is," she went on. "That up till you appeared in the picture Warren never had and never cared to have a girlfriend. But the way he looks at you..."

"It reminds you of how he used to look at her?"

"In a way... except there's more feelings and fire or whatever. Like he actually would fight for you," Magenta shook her head and stood up again. "I'm only trying to get you to get him, you know? He's been through a lot, he deserves being cared about."

With all said, Magenta paced in silence, waiting for Regina to continue. That, however, seamed to never come. Almost five minutes had passed before Regina had taken all in and decided to speak.

"You don't understand... Warren and I..." she tried to swallow the lump on her throat. "We're just physical. He's not getting hurt any more than I am."

"Are you sure he knows that?" Magenta shot back. "Just think about it. And," she chocked out. "If you're not in the same page, do the right thing and put him out of misery before it's too late."

Just like that, Magenta left, murmuring Merry Christmas before she left the sitting room. She didn't hear a reply.

Leaving the house with her chest a hell a lot lighter that when she'd first come, and putting her hopes on Regina not to hurt Warren, Magenta strolled quietly down the street toward her own home, occasionally kicking a mount of white snow.

As she left, she missed the slender figure of a girl standing behind some trees in the corner of the street, the pristine white Great Dane tamely sitting next to her. The girl's eyes followed Magenta till she was out of sight, then stepped out of her hiding place and shoved her hand inside her coat.

She took the phone out and up to her ear. "We're cool. She's gone."

* * *

"You're friend's gone already? I thought for sure she'd stay for lunch."

Shifting her gaze from the T.V. to Evelyn who had entered the sitting room with Lauren, Regina shook her head and looked back the T.V., zapping through the channels, and finally setting for the news.

"I guess she wanted to spend some time with her family," she said grimly.

"Such a dear, to come to see you in Christmas Eve," her grandmother pointed out as she settled in the couch next to Regina. Pursing her lips, she went on. "You should really rest that leg. I don't know if sitting is the best for your knee right now."

"My knee if fine," she assured. "I'm tired of the daybed."

"Hmm. What's that?"

The three women stared back at the T.V, which showed the city of London being attacked by it's regular villain, Mechaborg, resulting in complete destruction on some areas of the city.

"Fifteen casualties so far, with yet unexplored areas of the city to search for victims, London's regular superhero, Steel Baron, was sorely missed on this day and certainly expected to appear on public shortly to explain why he failed to save city and the people he has vowed to protect. The damage to the city, we remind you, was achieved in only ten minutes and after back-up heroes such as Mastera, Air Zephyr and Bio Lad got to the scene and intervened to save what was left, Mechaborg still managed to get away. This is the third city in the week to be attacked by villains and with heroes failing to do their job, Bangkok and Sao Paolo being the first to start this unnerving fashion. While authorities declare the three incidents are not related, many interrogates remain to be answered. On other news, the season is also getting it's own victims. A yet unidentified species of flu is causing coma state on the infected, though only for a short while. While the medical community cannot assure it's not contagious, we strongly recommend..."

Regina turned off the T.V. Evelyn grasped her shoulder. "It's spreading too fast. It's already made it to the news," she said.

"Who knows how long it'll take before they link the falling of the heroes and the spread of the disease and panick spread world-wide?" Regina reasoned. "Your friend, Sir Ulrich..."

"His team hasn't found anything yet. Except..."

As Eve didn't seam to be willing to develop her line of though, Regina stared back at her, arched brow, no need to put words to the question she wanted answered.

"Except, they have come across cases of heroes who are not allergic to penicillin, and still got sick."

Regina looked away, eyes fixed in the fire warming the room. It wasn't good.

______________________________________________________________________

Every inch of his body hurt. Not in the piercing pain kind of way, though, more like a constant tension gripping every single muscle he was made of, enclosed in tiresome lethargy and the willingness to remain in bed for days. he cause of his state was no mystery. He'd only returned from camp the day before, and after spending ten days in that God forsaken forest, trying to survive while achieving some glory for Sky High had surely worn him off, enough to actually want to spend the holidays laying flat on his back.

It was not to be born, though. His mother surely didn't agree to that. "Wake up, sunshine," came her voice through his stupor. "How's my baby boy doing?"

Grunting, Warren stared at his mother under heavy lids. "Please... Can't this wait a couple more hours...?"

Even though the dimness of the room, Warren could see her smile wickedly. "If I have to spend another minute telling your well-wishing callers you're just too tired to get up and answer the many birthday greetings, only to have them calling later on to see if you have, finally, deigned to get your cute little but of of that bed, I swear I'll get pyrokineticaly responding."

"Disconnect the phones," he suggested, struggling to make up her face.

"You know there is no way to disconnect communication with your grandmother," Melanie Peace snorted, sitting on the bed next to her son. "I tried, mind you, but she keeps astrally popping out of nowhere."

Light suddenly lit the room next to Warren, not much, just enough to have him shut his eyes. Two fingers aflame, Melinda lit the eighteen candles spread over the birthday cake. "C'mon. Blow them off."

Frowning, Warren sat up. "What time is it?"

"Almost four," the blond woman said, "Will called, said he'd drop by with the guys as soon as you wake up."

"Hum," Warren's hand lingered over the top of the lit candles, its flames flying to his forefinger and fused together into one glowing beam. Once every candle was out, he proceeded to blow his lit finger off.

His mother stopped him. "You may have convinced me not to sing at your birthdays, but you still have to make a wish."

Staring down at his flaming finger, Warren considered what to wish for. Not a second later, he blew off the flame.

* * *

"Reg?" Warren called as he closed the window he'd just climbed from. "Are you here? I'm back."

"_So I hear,"_ she said from the depths of the bathroom. _"Give me a minute and I'll be with you."_

Tiredly, Warren dropped his heavy body in the bed, closing his eyes and sighing. He hadn't come to Regina the night before; he'd intended to do so, but as he'd lay his head on his pillow, it had been impossible for him to wake up till the very next day. Christmas eve was hardly the best time to go to her, but waiting one day longer would have been torture. Not that he expected anything to happen tonight –he'd seen her knee, she probably couldn't walk right yet. But he had to see her, talk to her, hold her. He was being puckingly sentimental, no way in hell he could ever deny that. But somehow, he didn't care.

"_Talk to me. Who won the camp?"_

"We did, of course. My team was the first to get to the Base, and other than the sub you were staying at Sky High had secured other three," he reported.

"_Was there a prize?"_

"Getting back home was the prize."

"_Don't be so grouchy, birthday boy."_

He abruptly sat up. Crap. "How d'you knew?"

"_I have access to the school's record right in Boom's office. I checked months ago.__ I have to admit,"_ she went on. _"That I was a little surprised to find out you were born on Christmas Eve. You sure didn't get the joyful season spirit."_

Warren remained silent. It was bad enough that his mom and his friends would hover around him the entire day with presents and silly songs. God only knew what he'd do if he got another birthday greeting.

"_I'd meant to buy you a present, but since I'm __leg-shackled to a daybed in this house I couldn't."_

From the bed, his body comfortably spread, Warren humphed.

"So I guess we'll just have to do away with this."

She'd finally left the bathroom, and now stood on the threshold as sexily as she could. Though, in Warren's opinion, there was no need for that.

Her creamy fair skin contrasted wonderfully with the red of the negligé. Black lace bordered the deep neckline and her delicate shoulders, the red material falling gracefully over her curves, her tiny waist hidden by the pleated fabric, falling up to her mid thigh. She was bare feet, and, surprisingly to Warren, actually on her feet.

But more important, she was wearing his colors. _His_. That was a declaration. It had to be. And he could hardly control his feelings now.

"You can... walk?" he uttered. She nodded and walked slowly, closing the distance between her and the bed where he still was sitting, open mouthed, wide eyed. "Nothing hurts?"

"I'm officialy discharged."

He looked at her knee, and it was the knee he remembered from before the accident. Only a light scar crossed it.

She was in front of him now, one tug and she got his knees spread and stood in between them.

"Is this silk?" he asked huskily as his hand traced the curve of her back. she nodded. "Where did you get it?"

"I bought it a month ago or so. I decided to dig it out for tonight," her hands were now on his hair caressing the soft locks. "Do you like it?" she asked hesitantly.

He fixed his gaze on hers and stood up, brushing his body to hers. "It's beautiful," he said, and Regina doubted he was talking about the negligé.

* * *

The park near their new sanctum was the worst park Regina had ever visited. There was no sand box, no slide, no seesaw, nothing! So boring. The other kids around her had brought their own balls and kites to play with, but they weren't friendly either, so she couldn't just go and join them. Besides, her mother wouldn't approve.

Not that she was anywhere around. Evelyn had taken care of their outings to the park, something Regina was truly grateful for. Eve was so much more fun than mama.

"Regina!" called a male's voice from her back.

A smile on her face, she turned around.

And immediately woke up.

Great, another of her oh-so-frustrating, childhood-recalling dreams. She was so sick and tired of them, she couldn't wait to get back to school and see if she could get rid of them with Mrs. Ferraro's help. Half the dreams she didn't remember, the rest she did, but after having them all there was left was the distinctive feeling that she'd missed something. And even though she tried to fill in the holes, she just couldn't put her finger on it. And the dreams always ended when she was opening a door, or turning back or about to see someone. And that someone was the highlight of the disturbing factor in the dreams. She knew him male, because she'd heard his voice. Not very loud and clear, but like coming out of a dysfunctional radio. Still, that voice wasn't her father's, and that's the only male she'd closely knew back then. She had considered –nights ago, when she couldn't sleep after experiencing a similar dream- that the male was Royce, her parents accomplice. But that supposition had died, flatly and quickly. Her dreams were mostly about ordinary things she'd do back then, like studying with Eve, going to the park, playing house with her dolls and drinking tea with Eve with the set of china her mother –yes, her mother- had given her for her birthday. Those were hardly the activities of interest of badass villain.

Sighing, she stretched and rested her head back on Warren's shoulder. He woke up.

"Hey," he said huskily and her heart missed a heartbeat.

"Hi," she kissed him softly on the lips.

He smirked. "Took you long enough."

"What did?" she asked lifting a brow.

"Making up your mind."

She frowned. What was he talking about? "I'm half sleep. Explain."

"About us," he said. "Finally being a real couple."

WOW.

Where did that come from?!

"Huh?" she chocked out.

"I didn't think it'll took you this long, but," he smirked again. "It was worth the wait."

She didn't smile back. Her mind was completely boggled. She didn't remember accepting anything. Had she said something while asleep...? No, that too far-fetched.

"Hum," now she had to crush him. Perfect way to end a perfect night. "I don't know what made you think I do... but I really _don't_ want us to be a real couple."

He took the blow pretty good. He didn't strangle her, though it id seam he was fighting powerful demons not to do so. Slowly, the glint of happiness in his eyes fade, to be promptly replaced by cold fury.

"What did you think would happen after I saw you wearing my colors?"

"I expected you to like it very much, which you did," Regina said blatantly. "Three times."

"Well, yeah, I thought you were telling me you wanted us to be together _together_," his tone getting a tad bit louder, Warren sat up.

"Why would you think that?" she did the same.

He stared back at her as if he didn't know her. "Regina," he started, like he was explaining something very simple to a very obtuse person. "A super does not give up to his or her colors for someone else's, not even for one night, unless he or she means to commit fully to the other super."

"Commit...?" Regina chocked out, blanching instantly.

"Yeah, an engagement ring on your finger would have the same meaning. Not that I thought you wanted to marry me or anything," Warren quickly clarified, noting Regina's quick loose of color on her face. "But I thought we were finally making some progress."

"Well," she left the bed quickly. "We're not! I... I didn't know it meant that!" she cried, panic raising. "It was just a birthday present!"

"So you're not even considering?" Warren barked, black frown darkening his gaze. "After all this time, you still don't want to go public with me?"

"No," she snorted without thinking. "Why would I want that?"

"Question is, why don't you want that?"

She interrupted her pacing and glanced at him, then promptly resumed her pacing. "I should've never worn that stupid negligé."

"Forget the negligé. Why don't you want to be with me?" he asked plainly angry.

"You wouldn't have gotten these ridiculous ideas if I hadn't worn the thing in the first place," she went on, refusing to listen to him.

"Regina!" he was in front of her in less than a second, clearly struggling with the urge to shake her back to her senses. "Why don't you wanna be with me?!"

"We are together!" she cried back, silver eyes sticking daggers into him. "Why isn't that enough?!"

"Because I want more! Why don't you?!"

"Because I don't!" hurt silence followed her statement. They remained like that, angrily quiet, facing each other, for what it seamed to be an eternity. Finally she spoke again. "At least not now."

"But will you ever?" when she didn't answer, Warren strode away, further into the room. "Dammit!"

"Why are you being like this?" she followed him. "We were doing perfectly fine...!"

"I thought we were heading somewhere, Reg," he turned and face her again. "I don't want you just here," he signed the four wall of the bedroom. "I want you out with me too. I though you get that."

She turned around and walked away, reaching to take off the negligé she was still wearing. "First thing in the morning, I'm gonna burn this thing..."

He heard her shocked gasp, her shriek and her panicking "Oh my God!", it was all it took for him to follow her eyes to the window, getting a glimpse of the electric blue eyes that quickly vanished into the depths of the night, eyes that God only knew how long had been watching them.

Warren got to the window first, yanked it open and stuck his head outside. The chill that took over Regina had nothing to with the icy wind that entered the room with the opening of the window, but with those eyes, and the person that had born them, piercing into her room, into her life. Hugging herself, cursing not having left a robe at hand to cover herself, she joined Warren as he stared outside.

"I don't see anything," he reached for his clothes and was dressed by minutes. "I'm going out, see if I can still catch him," he pierced her with his chocolate eyes. "Go to sleep. I'll call you in a while," he kissed her. "Don't worry," he kissed her again. "And no matter what, don't go out."

After that he was gone, off into the night, the darkness glimpsing with white snow, off to find a man he did not know, but who'd surely regret enraging Warren Peace.

* * *

Standing behind the convenient group of trees in the corner of the block in front of number 1459, Oak Ave., white, cool air coming out of her mouth, the girl with the light lavender eyes stared up to the far window in the left corner of the house she'd been watching for the past few hours, the same window Warren Peace had used to climb out and in the wake of the man that had been lurking over the roof of the house, and drawn to that particular window, had been discovered watching by the occupants of the room. Smirking, odd amusement filling her eyes, she looked at her watch. It was nearly four in the morning; in a few hours, the families in the houses around her would start waking up and exchanging Christmas gifts, participating of a joy she couldn't, not at present, afford for her or her family.

Feeling the vibration of her phone, she dug it out of her coat pocket and shove it to her ear. "Hey," she greeted. "How's the storm?"

"Coming. All quiet over there?" asked the male voice on the other end of the line.

"Yep. Subjects behave as expected," she reported. "Doc finally dropped by, didn't think he'd take this long. He almost got himself caught, though."

"He did?" the man asked, slightly worried.

"Flame Ember and Dockside Doxy caught him peaking. He jumped over the window and into the top roof and run like hell. Ember followed shortly after."

"They didn't see you, did they?"

"Please," she snorted. "Who do you think you're dealing with?"

"Right," the man chuckled. "I sent Frannie over there. Wait for him and then get back here."

"Okey Dokey."

"Oh, and get rid of that phone before you return. I have the good ones ready."

"So fast?"

"Oh yeah, reformed, linked and good to go," the man said smugly. "You ever doubted I could do it?"

She laughed softly. "I'll see you in a while."

"Sure. And remember," the man suddenly sobered down. "You must remain unseen. Otherwise we'll screw everything up."

The communication finished with that last warning. Again smirking, the girl shoved the phone back in her pocket and raised her look to the far window in the left corner of the house, the window housed by Regina Boomowski's bedroom, who had just turned off the lights.

Pondering about the storm about to come, and the uneasy calm before it, she settled to wait for her relieving.

* * *

**so? what did you think? good...? bad...? intriguing, perhaps?**

**please leave a review! it would help a lot to my sour back!**


	19. Fate's sick idea of a joke

**Hello, darlings! I trust you're all feeling great and anxious to read my latest chapter, in order to leave me some big fat review later. so here you go and be done with it!**

Chapter nineteen: Fate's sick idea of a joke.

The creepy stalker wasn't found.

Positively not due to any lack of enthusiasm from Warren in the chase –he was at it till dawn perked up- but mostly because the guy had simply and thoroughly vanished. Come the morning, there as nothing else to do, they didn't have a description of him or even the faintest suspicion of who he might be, just a pair of eyes, sighted in the dark of a white night. Not to much to go from there.

Of course, the realization of having a creepy stalker on the loose was not to Regina's delight. After Warren left in his chase, she really did consider dismissing his request to stay put and go out and help him, even if there was nothing she really could do, hysteric as she was. Instead, and because she didn't trust herself or her nerves outside of the protecting shield of her room that night, she turned off the lights and sat by the window, looking out into the street, trying to catch something that her instinct kept telling just wasn't there.

At one point, about twenty minutes after Warren had left, she thought she'd seen a guy walking calmly round the corner. Her hear leapt a few heartbeats, and her throat closed, but when she leaned closer to the window and moved the heavy blue curtains aside just a little to gain a better range of vision, all there was around the corner were trees and snow.

She stood in vigil the remaining of the night, and when Warren called and said he was sorry, that he hadn't been able to find their guy, sleep was just too far away from her mind. Besides, morning was up. Christmas morning at that, and she'd promised Boom she'd have a family Christmas.

So Regina decided to go down the paces, shower, dress, and mask her face into a happy one, unwilling to let anyone know inside she was lying in some dark corner, curled up, scared and crying.

The paranoia was awful. She felt the need to look back her shoulder every second, especially when she stepped into the shower that morning. She'd never felt the need to shut her bathroom's door while she was showering; after all, other than herself, only Warren walked in unannounced in her bedroom, and she'd always trusted him that much. But that morning, she gave in to fear, to wanting the feeling of privacy.

So she locked her bathroom door.

Problem was, after she was done, she was afraid of opening it.

She actually cried. Sat in the floor next to the toilet and cried. She didn't even know how long she'd been there, locked in, all by herself, consumed by a fear she'd never before experienced. She'd never felt so vulnerable, so violated. Nobody had ever intruded on her privacy, threatened her in that way. Now someone had. And there was nothing she could do about it.

She screamed when the door opened, and met Evelyn's quizzical gaze and her non-uttered question.

Why on earth are you crying?

She didn't want to face the answer. Just thinking about it was bad, but putting words to it would make it real. More than she could bare. Right now, the creepy stalker was part of her life with Warren, of their relationship, of their secret. Eve was in no way part of it, and nor was Boom, her grandparent and their guests. Regina had been refusing to mix those two aspects of her life together for the past months and she was in no way going to start right now. It was over. It wasn't going to happen again.

Excuses paid to Evelyn, Regina left the bathroom, braced behind her mask.

She wasn't that vulnerable.

Nor fragile.

* * *

No one suspected she wasn't feeling as bubbly inside as she was in the outside during that day. Evelyn, of course, knew there was something amiss and she'd surely tell Boom about it, but Regina was sure she hadn't yet. He was just having a good time surrounded by family, friends and happiness, Evelyn wouldn't want to ruin that just yet.

Though it was so easy to pretend she was having fun as well, all Regina wanted was to go through all the hellish rituals and be done for the day, so she could retreat to the quiet protectiveness of her room. First, the opening of the presents, which took a remarkable long time considering there were only five people present, and in which Regina was more or less the center of everyone's attention – not to mention she'd gotten way too much presents. Her material self would have giggled had she been present.

The dinner preparations began, and it seamed there wasn't any time left to stop and take a breath. Also, people kept calling at the door, and whoever opened it just happened to have to witness the repetitive singing of carols for an ungodly amount of time. Regina only endured it twice, then she made sure to duck in the bathroom whenever she heard the doorbell.

Mr. Medulla arrived sometime after noon, quickly followed by Dr Montgomery. The first had been baned from his family to spend Christmas with them that year after an incident occurred in Thanksgiving which he would not discuss, but sure made him blush and quickly change the subject. The later was just lonely and sick of spending time with fellow doctors.

By the time dinner was served Regina had lost some of her earlier uneasiness and was actually enjoying herself. The company also helped. Boom and his father, sitting facing the other at each ends of the table, would bicker constantly about anything, from cars to sports, work to hobbies and leisure. The most remarkable conversation – one the rest of the party joined in- was about the legendary fight between Da Power and Diamond Dame.

"I say it lasted three whole days!" Marvin stated enthusiastically.

"Like hell it did!"

"How would you know? You weren't around!"

"You weren't exactly bright and up back then either," Boom argued waving his fork. "It was over sixty years ago!"

"I was in my prime...! Worked with General Order!"

"I had his picture hanging behind my bed," Medulla put in, eyes dreamily looking up. "Such a constant hero."

"Pity he got eaten by that snake in Brazil," Dr. Montgomery added and everyone nodded.

"Men," Lauren shook her head and patted Regina hand. "Always reminiscing about past time heroes. It's time for the new generation!"

Medulla snorted. "Punks. Can't even tell from a molecule accelerator and a molecule expander."

"In all fairness," Regina cut in. "You did have us tell which from which blindfolded."

"Well, villains are just as creative. How are you ever going to learn?"

It went on like that while the courses came and go, then they all settled to wait for dessert. It was then that Evelyn inquired Dr. Montgomery about his researching.

"It's not going well," the man sighed, looking two steps away from depression. "All our theories are being proved wrong even before we draw them."

"You've ruled out penicillin allergy?" Regina asked.

"Yes, yes, half our patients don't have it. Some do, some have other allergies, or heart conditions or liver problems, or are perfectly healthy," he sighed. "Whatever is that's making the DNA change we just cannot put our finger on."

"However, and it's only a small point in our favor," he went on. "It seams to concentrate within large congregations of supers. So far, prisons around the world are being the most affected," he made a sound halfway down a snort and a bark of laughter. "Practically every villain locked up is powerless by now."

"But so are the hero staff of the prisons, ain't it?" Boom cut in.

"Yes, of course," Dr. Montgomery waved the though aside. "But it's still something to consider. It positively breeds easily among large groups of supers. Next will fall the agencies and the schools, we think."

"What are the chances of it being caused by a villain of some sort?" Lauren asked after a few moments of silence. "One that wishes to strip everybody from their powers."

"He wouldn't attach prisons so readily," Her husband said.

"Maybe he just doesn't want the competition?" Eve offered.

"It couldn't be a "he"," Medulla corrected. "More like a "they". This thing it's too wide spread to be the work of just one person."

"I don't think someone is doing this," Regina suddenly said. "I think it's nature correcting it's work."

All eyes were on her. Staring. Unbelieving.

"The basic human DNA does not include powers. That's why there's more people in the world with no powers. They're a mutation, one which doesn't really follow rules, not any we've been able to identify at least," she shrugged. "Like appendages, they're there, but we could function perfectly if they weren't."

Still no one spoke.

"I mean, they're not natural. There's no power recorded before 1930, and that was around the time they started experimenting with radioactive material," Regina exposed. "The radiation spread through the world, and some people mutated, and passed it on to their children and so on, but powers are not essentially human. So this could be nature's way to suppress the mutation."

"That is one very negative way to look at this," Medulla said, astonished, after a while.

Regina smiled tightly. "What can I say? I'm particularly partial to see the glass half empty."

Luckily, Christmas was soon finished. The next day her grandparents left to Florida, quite anxious to be back in their sunny warm weather rather than Maxville's winter. Warren excused himself that night, said he couldn't make it because they'd called from the Agency and they wanted his help and some others'. So Regina slept alone that night, forced herself to turn off the lights, close her eyes tightly and sleep. To keep her mind from the creep who was _not_ coming back and was _definitely not _watching her from outside her house.

Little did she know he actually was.

* * *

_Hello.  
Is there anybody in there?  
Just nod if you can hear me.  
Is there anyone home?_

_Come on, now.  
I hear you're feeling down.  
Well I can ease your pain,  
Get you on your feet again._

_Relax.  
I need some information first.  
Just the basic facts:  
Can you show me where it hurts? _

_There is no pain, you are receding.  
A distant ships smoke on the horizon.  
You are only coming through in waves.  
Your lips move but I cant hear what you're saying.  
When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse,  
Out of the corner of my eye.  
I turned to look but it was gone.  
I cannot put my finger on it now.  
The child is grown, the dream is gone.  
I have become comfortably numb._

"Don't you have someone who does that for you?"

With a squeak and a jump, Regina turned from the stove to glare at Warren, leaning oh-so-casually on her kitchen's threshold. Fire in her eyes, gritting her teeth, she dropped the soaky sponge she'd been using to rub the stove's surface on the counter next to her.

"You know I hate it when you do that," she gritted out, struggling to get her heart to beat normally.

"Sorry," she saw something odd in his eyes when he said the word. "How've you been doing?"

She considered his question and the answer her was striving after. "Fine."

Warren sighed and approached her, mentally kicking himself. He had considered the possibility that after last time they'd seen, things with Regina would be difficult. And not only because of what they had been discussing –more like arguing about- that time, but because of what had interrupted them. He knew her, more that what she gave him credit for, and understood that Regina liked to be strong, preferred the rest of the world saw her that way. She'd built a wall around her to assure no one would see how fragile she could be, and most of the time she succeded. The only time he'd seen her wall crumble was months ago when he'd made one incredibly insensitive remark about her parents and she'd kicked him out of the house. The other times she'd been mad at him –and there had been many, before they started sleeping together- it had been different. Those times he'd seen through crack on her wall, but it had remained still protecting her.

The wall had failed its propose when they'd caught the creep watching them. He'd seen clearly through it, the fear that had gotten over Regina, felt it as his own and acted upon it, hunting the guy down, wanting more than anything to ensure Regina's safety. He'd failed. And now the wall had been built again and, Warren feared, was even higher and thicker that the previous one.

"What are you doing down here? You know you're not supposed to leave my room."

"I'm tired of your room."

"You could've run into someone..."

"I waited till your uncle and Evelyn left," he said grasping the verge of the stove to reduce the frustration.

"You should've called me," Regina toyed with her gloved hand, removing one finger after another. "I would've come upstairs..."

"I wanted to be down here! What's the freaking problem?"

She gritted her teeth and took off one glove. "What did you want?"

Warren did some gritting of his own. "I wanted to finish our discussion."

"There's nothing to..."

"Regina, cut it off! It's not cute anymore. Either you tell me what's the problem with us or I'm walking and not coming back."

"Tell you...? You're the one who keeps complicating things!" she chocked out.

"Because I want you to be my girlfriend? That's me complicating things?"

"Yes! We don't need to do the icky love stuff, walk hand in hand, meeting the parents, touching in public! That's all show for the world!" she reached for his hand with her bare one. "I care about you, and I know you do too, so why should the rest of the world matter? It's better this way," she smiled. "It's just the two of us."

She could feel his hand hot, really hot, as hot as the fire in his eyes, and for someone who'd seen lots of it before, Regina knew that fire wasn't the good kind of one. He was going up in smoke, she could tell, he radiated so much heat. It surprised her, it really did, because he held such a tight leash on his powers, he never outburst just because he was mad. That only happened when he wanted it to happen. This time, though, she wasn't so sure he still held the reigns.

She let go of his hand, yet kept her gaze locked in his, watching the flames up the chocolate orbs.

"It's not enough," he determined, his face stony set. "All or nothing, no more in between. I can't take it."

"You're breaking up with me?" Regina asked, anger raising.

"No," he frowned. "I'm informing you of my terms. If you can't meet then, then we're through. It's entirely up to you."

She half snorted, half laughed. "Be that way!" she spitted. "I'm not going to be coaxed into something I don't want...!"

To gain support, she'd reached with her gloved hand for the other verge of the stove, just one step ahead, closer to Warren, only to make her point. At first she couldn't understand the pain that went though her, burning up her palm.

She heard a scream, then realised it had been her own. The kitchen was then filled by the smell of burn plastic and flesh, a combination most naseous. She felt Warren reach for her hand and detached it of the burning stove, with a tug that felt like she'd left her skin stuck to it. She locked down to her hand through wet eyes; the plastic was completely burnt, all melt and mixed up with some reddish, ill-looking flesh and some icky fluid.

The look on Warren's face as he apologized and wisked her out of the house to his car was one she'd never forget. He wasn't just sorry. He was panicking.

He had lost his temper and, more importantly, had lost control of his powers. That _never_ happened to him these days. Yet he'd been touching the stove and heating up at the same time, so he'd unconsciously worked up to get the stove's metal as hot as firebrand. And she'd touched it. He'd hurt her. He could never forgive himself.

The hospital was only a few minutes away. Due to Regina's injure she was treated right away. Warren was not allowed to follow Regina to the exam room she was treated in, but kept close.

First they had to take off her glove, a most painful experience that called for the applying of local anesthesia. Then they had to remove all the platic, the dead tissue and the blisters, so they could see the actual depth of the wound and improve it's healing. Most her palm was affected, as parts of her fingers. It wasn't all that serious, though. The doctor that saw to her assured her she wouldn't need any skin grafts.

With an antimicrobial ointment and dressings to absorb the fluid of the wound, Regina was left in the room with instructions to remain there till someone came and finished with her. Since she a minor, she had to give them Boom's number so they could call him. Soon, he'd show up and Regina would have a very awkward conversation with him.

Warren walked in, looking worst than she'd ever seen him. He started toward her but stoppe half way down.

"They say it's not that bad," Regina informed and saw him release air that seamed to have been trapped in his lungs ever since they'd walked into the hospital. "Boom's coming. I think..." she looked down. "I think you should go to my place and clean the stove. I saw some plastic and flesh clinging to it before we left."

"You're gonna lie to him?" he asked stone faced.

"If I tell him what really happened, he'll want to know what we were doing together."

"And that just won't do, won't it?"

She shook her head. Warren waited for her to say something else. When she didn't, he turned and yanked the door open.

"I..." she called back and he stopped, but didn't turn to see her. "It was an honest accident. Don't beat yourself up over it."

It was useless, she knew it. He'd give himself a hard time anyway. But he needed to know that. She didn't blame him.

"Good-bye, Warren."

He left, slamming the door on his way out.

Regina didn't have much time to regret him leaving or change her mind, though. Dr. Brandsen walked in the room almost instantly.

"Dr. Stevens had to see another patient, asked me to finish you up," he said, eyes on his chart, striding toward her.

He sat in a stool by Regina's side, put his gloves on and lifted the dressing covering her hand. "It's not serious," he dismissed her. He turned and grabbed a brand new dressing kit. "You'll get a huge blister, but it'll be just fine in a couple of days."

"Okay," she nodded, glad of having to distract her thoughts from Warren. "How often should I change the dressing?"

He frowned. "If you get it wet or dirty, come back and I'll change it for you. Otherwise there's no need to."

It was her time to frown. "Why...?"

"If you change it yourself it's very likely that'll get infected."

"But..."

"Just keep your damn hand away from anything! Take off the dressing in one week and that's it."

Arched brow, temper escalating, Regina stared back. "Sorry I asked. I didn't realize it was _such_ a big deal."

He didn't say another word while he was at it with her hand. Then, eyes conceiving, he stared back.

"What really happened?"

"I burnt my hand. I thought that was obvious."

"The guy who just left... what did he have to do with it?"

Regina half smiled. "He was with me at the time and he drove me here... oh, no," she shook her head, getting from his frown what was going through the doctor's head. "No, no, no, what you're thinking, stop thinking it, because it's very far from the truth."

"Is that so? Then why did he looked so... _guilty_?" he all but spit the word.

"You don't know him! How can you just walk here and judge everybody around when you don't know the first thing about my life?"

"I know he looked suspicious and that you ended up in the hospital with a torched hand!" he argued.

"It's just a blister, and it was an accident, one that was entirely my fault!"

"Well, then I guess I'll have to let social services take care of it," he stood up, paced to the door but didn't leave. Instead, he just prowled around the room, like a large, caged animal.

"Why do you care so much?" Regina asked softly, barely audibly.

"You're my... patient. I have to."

"Well, I'd rather you didn't."

He opened the door. With one last "Keep your hand clean and dry," and a slamming of the door, he was gone.

Sighing tiredly, Regina wondered how many more people planned to storm out of her room that day.

* * *

The first month of the new year went by as it came: uneventful, if not excruciatingly slow. The estrangement between Warren and Regina, in a way tolerable during the last days of the holidays, only got harder and more painful with the beginning of classes; crossing each other on the halls and sitting in the same classrooms, knowing there would be no more rendezvous in the janitor's closet, no more playful, meaningful glances, was pure torture, on both sides. Regina couldn't help herself, however, and stare at him whenever he was near. She still cared about him, would continue to, and sincerely hoped he'd go back to her, with no ultimatum about having a real relationship.

It hurt that he didn't know her enough to understand why she wasn't interested in going puplic. Regina realized they'd only been together for a month and a half –even though it seamed like much longer- and that it wasn't nearly enough time for anybody to get to know her that well, but she'd felt like he might. She got it, why he wanted to be together _together_ with her –if anything, Magent's visit had shed even more light on that fact. She just didn't see eye to eye with him on that point.

Mrs. Ferraro had given her her fair share of lecture, seeing neither Boom and Evelyn were aware of the situation to do so themselves. "One of the goals of our sessions was to work up your commitment fear; I get it we hadn't have enough time to fix you, but if you don't take the first step, take some chances, you'll never get rid of you issues," she'd told Regina at the end of the first session of the year. She'd also said that she might regret it later. To that, Regina had no answer, and found herself leaving Mrs. Ferraro's office feeling her heart weighted a hell of a lot more than it ought to.

Megan had a lot to say about the matter, too. After being thoroughly shocked when Regina told her about the negligé –she actually yelled at her and told her that was positively the most stupid thing she could have ever done, specially since she hadn't meant it at all- she'd been sympathetic to her friend's heartache. Having years of avoiding a established relationship herself, Megan knew perfectly where Regina was standing. Her reasons, however, were limited to just haven't found the right guy to go serious with yet, which was why she firmly believed Regina was making a mistake.

With that established, she'd proceeded to cheer Regina up, given she wouldn't be coerced in any way to talk to Warren or to even consider changing her mind. Cheering her up consisted primarily on talking though every little detail of Megan's soon coming ballet recital, after which her parents were hosting a formal party to celebrate Megan's acceptance in Julliard. Regina very much welcomed the distraction, so much she launched herself and became involved in the planning of the party. During that entire month, she devoted herself to flower arrangements, invitations, guest lists, caterers, color matching, anyway, all needed for the party. Megan was glad of both doing her friend a favor and having her on her side with the choosing of the little details that would make her party a success; even though her mother was really the one incharge, having Regina help them gave her more time to practice for the recital.

In between the party preparation and the demands of school, Regina hardly had any time think about her predictment with Warren. Which didn't mean at all he wasn't present in a corner of her mind, lurking like the predator he was, waiting for her to take a breath and then pop out of nowhere and screwing up her day. It was remarkably annoying.

School was taking a lot of time from Regina too. Given she'd been self schooled for most her life, she and Boom hadn't considered it prudent to take the HSATs on the earlier dates, feeling it'd be better if she just waited till March, having June as a last resource in case she got it wrong. Hence, she was swamped with extra work. Worst thing of it all, was that she actually didn't have a problem with the study material, which got her mind to wonder a lot and land on certain pyro when she was supposed to be studying hard.

Keeping herself busy had another pro to add to the chart; it allowed her to pretend she wasn't paranoid. She did keep an eye on her back, so to speak, trying to catch somebody following her, or maybe a suspicious looking stranger. So far she'd had no success, which she should be glad of; she'd only once been totally sure there was someone on her tail, while she was at the mall with Megan and her mom, but it turned out it was just Dr. Brandsen who, having sighted from afar, had wanted to come over to say hello and ask how her hand was going. Warren seamed interested in the creepy stalker business himself; he would approach her about twice a week on Hero Ethics and Mad Science and ask whether she'd seen or felt she was being stalked or not. Regina would say everything was fine -even when she was sure the stalker hadn't gone-, enjoy the warmth of his concern, and then watch him leave, not looking back and with no other word.

She got the distraction she'd been craving for by the first days of February, when Dr. Montgomery, who had gone to dine with them that evening, forgot his laptop at their house. Regina actually hadn't noticed it there till she went down to the kitchen in the wee hours of the night and passing by the sitting room, felt drawn to look inside and saw it there, innocently lying atop the coffee table.

She quickly muted the little voice inside her head that kept telling her it was wrong to dig in another man's personal computer. After all, she was only going to read the information concerning the power bonding disease, not tamper with it, and she certainly wasn't going to look into any personal files should she come across any. Her interest in Dr. Montgomery was purely professional.

Regina soon found, though, that a quick peak just asn't going to be enough. So she decided to further breach the laptop's privacy and made a copy of the files with the help of her flash drive, so she could study them more thoroughly in the convenient loneliness of her bedroom.

The information was highly upsetting. The total of supers affected came to two hundred thousand and sixty two now powerless, ordinary people. All from different races, different lifestyles, different everything. The only thing they had in common was that they were either heroes or sidekicks.

Even though Dr. Montgomery and his helpers were far from detecting the trigger of the disease, they had determined that after late December's wave which had taken over every single villain prison in the world, no new cases had been reported. That either meant that the diseasse was receding or incubating, and it could very well bring their work to an end, having not discovered anything of consequence and not having anything to actually study on.

It was after she'd labeled the whole research useless and got back to bed that something had triggered in her brain. Her mother had always said it, to gain a better look on a machination, you ought to take a few steps back and admire all the ramifications. So, well, she was few steps back from all the patients lists she's been reading, metaphorically speaking, and there was something there. Something Dr. Montgomery hadn't noticed before, or probably he had but hadn't considered it important enough to put on his files.

Holding back a grin in case she was terribly wrong, she flew back to her computer and opened the chronological lists of patiens, taking special attention to their powers. She hadn't read the entire list before –there were over two hundred thousand patients after all- and wasn't planning to read it entirely now, not at least they way it was listed anyway.

She took the principal list and fragmented it, separating the patients who had gotten ill inside the prisons from those who hadn't, following always the chronologically order. The non-prisoners added up to three thousand and fifty seven supers all around the wold, with the first to be reported being some French whose super-strength derived from na ancient belt. Said belt was proved to work on other people, just not on himself after he woke up from his three day long coma.

The next patients were different cases of heightened human physical potential, such as super strength, speed and hearing, then the powers that had anything to do with the manipulation of one's molecules, like shape-shifting, phasing, invisibility, duplication, self healing; next followed, in this order, personal physical powers, like sonic scream and energy generation, then manipulation of classical elements, then energy, time, probabilities and finally, molecules, all out of self. The list ended with mental faculties and knowledge based abilities, mind control and, by last, super power manipulation.

What son intrigued Regina was that out of all the three thousand and fifty seven supers, not one power was repeated. There weren't more than one flyer, or tecnopath, or acid spitter. The only exception were shape-shifters, but there were only two of these: one that could shapeshift into animals and another who would change into humans.

She checked on-line with the Super Hero and Hero Support Regulation Department –which took care of being aware of any matter related to the supers- which kept up to date listings of powers reported and, oh, surprise, surprise, they said that there were, currently, only three thousand and fifty seven different kinds of powers around the world.

Was it a coincidence that only one example of each and every one of those powers had dissapeared randombly around the globe? Regina didn't think so.

Having that determined, she compared that list with the one she'd made of the first prison to be affected. The spread of the disease had gone in the exact same order inside the precinct, and so had been in the rest of the prisons, as she checked later.

The conclusions came simply enough.

It definitely wasn't nature's work, as she'd previously assumed.

Whoever was doing it, had run a scientific trial of sorts, infecting and monitoring the results of the disease on individual whose powers were not the same, testing only one of a kind.

Once they'd determined the disease would bind all sorts of powers, they moved to implement their trial on small yet relatively large, closed comunities, meaning prisons.

With that done, the next step could bring them to infecting even larges establishments, but it wasn't necessary. There was nothing keeping them from releasing the disease in a whole continent, or even the world, not if their results had been as satisfactory with the prisons as Regina thought they were.

The question was how. How was it that they got the super infected? It had to be by direct contact with the trigger, otherwise there was no way they could have kept it under their control like that. But no one had noticed anything weird, out of place.

How?

Yet no matter how many times Regina would ask herself that, the answer wouldn't come.

Morning was up when she was done pondering. Having spent an entire night sitting in front of a computer, running facts, checking and double checking powers and trying to reveal the masterplan of one obviously brilliant supervillan, Regina would've expected to feel tired and worn out, yet the rush of finding out something that probably no one had was incredible, it lightened her heart and put a true smile on her face for the first time in weeks.

For the first time since she'd last talked to Warren.

She shook her hear, forcing the predator to return to the corner he'd been quietly sitting on for the last few hours. She was not going to let him darken her mood.

* * *

"Tonight's the night."

Standing on Sky High's roof, all in different positions, three young men and a young girl were watching beneath them, each concerned with different aspects of what was happening on campus. The one who'd spoken was clearly the eldest, though not by many years. With his short, tumbling, dark chestnut curls and flashing violet eyes he'd always have a relaxed aspect, though by no means necessarily carefree. The set of his face, on the other hand, made him look more mature, decided, a strange combination which not only suited him, but was also very intriguing.

"Should we keep an eye on Stronghold?" sitting on the edge of the roof, his electric indigo gaze fixed on some point several feet underneath, stratingly handsome with black hair and curved lips, a man few if any years younger than the first one asked.

"What's the point?" the other asked back. "They'll pick him up and be done with him. We've nothing to do with it. We do, however, have to settle what we're gonna do tonight. George?" he turned to the girl, the youngest one in the group. "Doxy's picking up her dress today; I want you on her tail," George nodded while tying her short, straight, light auburn, black-stroked hair into a high pony tail. "Frannie, you stick to Ember's back. And Mason... where's Mason?"

All three looked around, trying to find the missing member of the group.

"He was right here..." Frannie said, sighed and moved away the edge of the school. He blinked twice and his eyes became two white blurs, unbareable to look directly at. "He's behind the water tank," he pointed a few feet away from their current location. "I think he saw something."

The three walked the short way to where supposely Mason was, and found him leaning on the edge, staring at a couple arguing.

"'Bout time," Frannie declared, joining his twin in the watch-out.

"I didn't miss a word you were saying, Owen, promise," he assured him, sparing only a purple glance for him before he returned to watch the couple. "Where d'you want me tonight?"

"You'll be manning the central, then George will join you."

Amazed silence followed his statement. "Does that mean you'll be tailing Doxy?" the twins asked at once.

"I though you didn't trust yorself to tail her?" George put in.

"It's a party, I can easily blend in. Besides," he added, a slight blush coloring his cheeks. "Mom taught all of us how to best tail someone undetected, she'd be disappointed if I don't at least try to tail Doxy."

They all had to agree there.

* * *

Her mood was to be darkened.

And it was all Warren's fault!

He was the most stupid, idiotic, self conceited ass she'd ever had the disgrace of knowing. And to think she'd actually thought her caring about him might be something else... Argh! How could he be so frustrating?

He'd done it on purpose, which was even worst. Not only had he tried to make her jealous, and with Magenta Stiles, of all people, but he'd also refused all charges and played the innocent! And to top all that, she'd made a fool of herself by giving him exactly what he wanted. A reaction.

It was all very simple. Sometime around second period and in her full view, Warren had kissed Magenta. Megan had been with her at the moment and was fit to swear on her honor that she'd never before seen such rage on Regina face.

The rage had been there, and still was. It was very real and undeniable, no matter how hard she tried to reject it. But it hadn't been nearly as bad as when, done with the kissing, Magenta had turned around, stared right into Regina's silver glare and smiled smugly. Warren's expression she hadn't been able to make up, she was too busy glaring at Magenta and listing all the slowly painful tortures she would put the little rat through before she finished her off.

Fully intending to do so, Regina had marched down the hall, not noticing people would make her way, suddenly wary of the maniac glint in her eyes which predicted mayhem was in order. Warren had seen it too and, in order to spare his new little lady friend, he yanked Regina out reach and down the halls to get somewhere a little more private to the forthcoming argument. Since Regina preferred inflicting pain in Warren at the time, she let him and followed with no qualms.

They were on the back of the building, out in the cold breeze, when he finally released her. Regina could tell by the stiffness of his movements and his lack of verbal comunation that he, too, was ver much angry.

"So, you finally got your girlfriend, didn't you?" she hissed, crossing her arms over her chest.

Warren inhaled through gritted teeth.

"Now you can go on your merry way, holding hands and hearing people say how cute the two of you look together, and you'll smile and bow your head and kiss her to make a point and you'll get them oooohing and aaahing at you, well you know what, they're lying! You're not cute! She's not cute! And you two together are one creepy sight!"

"Then don't look," he uttered.

"How can I not when you're making out in front of me?"

"That... was a mistake," he shook his head. "Won't happen again."

"How positively magnanimous of you," she clapped satirically. "Don't expect me to buy a word coming out of your mouth, though, I'm sure guilt is the last thing eating you up. But, hey, Valentine's Dance is next week, maybe you can make further mistakes over there! I'll be sure to keep an eye out."

"You broke up with me," Warren reminded her.

"No I didn't."

"I'm pretty sure you did."

She snorted and turned her back on him.

"Why her?" she asked after a while, as if the answer wouldn't kill her inside. "It takes a degree of beauty to catch your eye, which we can unanimously agree she lacks."

"Did anyone ever tell you what a bitch you can be, Regina?" he asked in a deceptively even tone.

"Old habits die hard," she turned to her, a cold seductive look in her eyes. "You, of all people should know that," Regina curved her lips and approached him slowly, moving her body the way she knew he liked. "Don't you miss me? I miss you," she place a small, delicate hand on his chest, felt him quiver. "We were good together," she slowly run a single finger over the jacket up to the shoulder and the back again. "We don't need to complicate things. Just you and me. Together. Alone."

For a moment, she thought she'd got him, that he would admit she was right and they would go back to the way they used to be. Warren even cupped her face with his hands and lowered his head, so their noses were almost touching and Regina could feel his hot breath on her lips.

"You know all those time I called you a slut and you kept saying I was wrong?" he said softly. "Can you really say I'm wrong now?"

Cold ice down her spine, Regina opened her eyes and closed her mouth. She stepped back, wishing she wasn't feeling quite so dwarfed in his presense.

With one last glance, Warren disappeared around the corner of the school.

* * *

The recital was a lovely affair. Regina didn't understand all that much of ballet, but she did know Megan looked beautiful on her outfit and that all the jumps and turns were extremely graceful and that she didn't fall at any point; to her, that accounted as an absolute success. The crowd seamed to think the same, when after her solo, the closing of the evening, everybody stood up to applause.

Megan's mom even shed a few tears which, far from embarrass her on her daughter, seamed to touch a very deep nerve in Julliard's recruiter. The man, who'd been sitting along Mr. And Mrs. Hazec a few rows ahead from Regina, had kept a critical, severe eye on the production all night and the only sign of acknowledgement towards Megan had been a stiff bow when all the dancers joined at the stage to receive the standing ovation.

They removed to the formal party hosted at the Spencer Weimz, one of Maxville's finest hotels. The only ones invited from Sky High, aside Regina herself, were Mike, Kyle and Colin. Most of the guests were either family, family friends, connections and, of course, the ballet folk. Megan looked startlingly beautiful on her little white and gold dress, though the same effect would've been achieved were she wearing a sack of potatoes, since it was her grin and the happy glowing that spared her from the crowd.

Regina could not be more happy about her friend and meant every single smile while in her presence or watching her recital. However, the lurking predator was even more present that night than others and refused to go back to his corner. She might as well had Warren prowling after her the entire night, she felt so uncomfortable, and it had nothing to do with the alarmingly high metallic silver heels she was wearing or the blue, high waist little dress she'd pick up for the night. It was the fact that she'd been brooding for the past few hours and didn't like the conclusions she was reaching. Not one little bit.

She realized now what her mistake had been earlier that day, when she'd reacted so badly to him kissing Magenta. She shouldn't have confront him like that, should have kept her mouth shut and suffer in silence. Maybe, then, the pain would've evetually gone away. Now, she wasn't so sure it would.

They hadn't spoken in over a month! That was almost as many time they'd actually been together, she should be over him by now! So, how was it that he could still get a reaction from her, one that would humiliate her in ways Regina had never thought possible?

The little voice inside her head –which by the way, sounded surprisingly like her mother's- had little to say on the matter. But no matter how little word they actually were, the message was still the same.

She could avoid herself all this by just being open to Warren, and to herself. She knew him, knew what he wanted to hear, knew that she would love to hear herself say it, if only it didn't involve such a risk. She couldn't afford taking anymore risks on that department.

Great, now she was going to cry in the middle of her best friend's party. Regina would've snorted if the people around her weren't withing hearing range. She headed for the double doors leading to a private terrace in order to get some air and pull herself together before anyone noticed something off with her. She couldn't be long though; there were some touching reading planned to take place a while later and she have to pay her share. She'd only be out for a minute or so...

She collided with a walking monument on her way out. The guy was so large, he didn't even take a step back when they crashed. For an awkward moment, she'd thought it was Warren, but that was only the reaction of her body to being close to one so similar to his, both in the breadness of shoulders and lean complexion.

He'd put his arms around her to steady her, but quickly let go, pulling her away gently if not without delay.

"Sorry," Regina managed to say, taking deep breaths to make up for the one she'd lost in the collision. "I wasn't looking."

The guy murmured something barely audible, moving awkwardly. Since the terrace was dimly lit and his back was facing the ballroom, all she could make out of his features was the short curly hair, which could be either black or brown, and the general lines of his face, though not very much. His eyes were completely concealed, not only by the lack of light but also by him, since he wouldn't meet her gaze.

"I'm Regina," she held out her hand, doing the polite thing to do. "Megan's best friend."

"Ah... Owen," he nodded, but didn't grasp her hand. "My mom works with hers."

"Um, that's nice," now Regina was feeling awkward herself. She reached for the railing and looked up to the sky. "You wouldn't happen to have any booze, do you?"

Even in the dim light, she could see the astonished arch of brow. "I could really use a drink," she sighed, her back to him.

"Can't help you with that..." she felt him go nearer to her, then saw him lean on the rail next to her. "But if you want to talk..."

Regina gave a short bark of laughter. "That's really the cherry atop my day, taking my sorrows out with a stranger at my friend's party. How pathetic do you think I am?"

"Not pathetic at all," he assured her, pointedly staring at her, willing her to tell him.

"There's this guy... we went out for a while but now we've broken up."

"Why'd you break up?"

"He wanted to go serious and I didn't."

"So you broke up with him."

"Well, if you wanna get specific, then yes, I guess I..." she stopped, then in a small voice. "I broke up with Warren."

Regina's breathing hardened, her heart gained more wight and her lungs refused to work properly, no matter how many a big breath she took.

"I guess admitting it really is the first step," she joked, feeling her eyes sting with upcoming tears.

"You obviously care about him," Owen said carefully. "Have you considered, I don't know, talking to him?"

"What's the point? He's gonna wanna know why I can't be with him," she shook her head and held back a sob.

"And you can't, or won't tell him that," he assumed correctly, producing a handkerchief from his pocket. "It's a shame you're so afraid of your feelings. It would be a lot easier for you if you were half the coward you are," he smiled charmingly.

"Ha ha," Regina played along, accepting the handkerchief. "I can't help it."

"Yes, you can."

Regina seamed taken aback by his retort, by the truth in it, like an epiphany had just dawned on her. Owen smiled, clearly satisfied of her reaction. "Just think about it," and just like that, he dived into the crowd in the ballroom, leaving Regina alone with her thoughts in the terrace.

After a few minutes, the tears had stopped and were replaced by a chuckle, then another, transforming quickly into laughter. Without giving it another thought, she returned to the ballroom, but not to stay, only long enough to find Megan and tell her something had come up and she had to leave. Megan was slightly shocked, but eventually let her go, making her promise she'd tell her what the problem was th next day. She finally retrieved her coat and purse and left the hotel.

Her movements were closely watched by Owen, who on the other side of the room strived and succeeded at being invisible, when he watched her leave, he shoved his phone out of his pocket. "We might have a little problem."

"Are you kidding me?" Mason, on the other end of the line, cried. "We're not supposed to make contact! You're the one who keeps telling us that."

"Now she's leaving!" George cut in. "She's supposed to stay at the party!"

"We don't know that entirely for sure," Owen argued. "Look, I can't follow her now, she'll easily recognize me. I need you to keep an eye on her, Frannie."

"Sure, _I'll_ fix your mess," Frannie snorted. "This better not screw up with our plans, Owen."

* * *

There wasn't much traffic that night, even considering it was a Friday. Warren lived uptown, in an apartment building near Maxville's main square. It wasn't all that far from the hotel, which was conveniently located facing the river, and should have taken only fifteen minutes to get there taking the free way. She'd never been to his place before, but was fully confident that she would find it with no problem. After all, fate was on her side that night.

There was a shortcut she could take, rounding up the bus station instead of going directly by the park, which was considerably larger and it would take longer. Last time she'd been over there was when she and Warren had returned from Addington, together, with an understanding that had suited them both at the time. Now she was passing by there again, with another proposition in mind, refusing to be a coward, to let him go.

It wasn't too late, every instinct she had was crying that. She would go to him and they would work everything up.

What followed had to be fate's sick idea of a joke.

* * *

**To those of you who would like a little more insight on Warren's side of the events of this chapter, do not fret. you'll read all about him in next chapter, since this is Regina's last.**

**in case you're interested, this is the dress Regina was wearing at the party:**

.?PRODUCTprd_id=845524446215855&site_refer=AFF001&site_refer=AFF001&siteID=J84DHJLQkR4-Xjq812zOAICEKUObTjwIag

**and the shoes are the same as the picture.**

**please review!**


	20. This side of Hell

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* * *

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I'm so sorry. Please, don't hate me.

Chapter twenty: This side of hell.

The bodies were returned to the families after the forensic examiner determined the cause of death and the police couldn't find any reason to keep them in the morgue, over a week after they'd been found floating on the river, both completely naked, after being missing for ten days. The mourning families had requested to the local authorities that their houses were secured by law enforcement officers at the time of the funerals, having spent the last two weeks being harassed on their sorrow by the media, now that the worst fear ever had become true and they had to cope with their loss, the last thing they wanted or needed was dealing with the reporters.

The events that preceeded the deaths of Will Stronghold and Regina Boomowski were surrounded by a heavy curtain of mist, envelopped in the mystery of how?, who?, and, most importantly, why?.

The facts everybody knew were the following: Will and Regina did not frequent the same groups or places, weren't friends, though they did go to the same school. Last time Will had been seen, he had left his home to see a friend on the first Friday of February; Regina, on the other hand, had left a party at the Spencer Weimz Hotel on the same night, without giving any specification as to where she was heading. Will had been on foot that night, while Regina had been driving her uncle's dark blue Ford Escape, which was later on found abandoned outside Maxville.

There were no leads as to whether they'd been kidnapped or run off together; their pictures were shown on every news chanel, the families appeared on television asking the public for any kind of information that might lead them to find the two teens. It was all useless. On the 16th of February, a Monday, their bodies were found dead, led ashore by the morning tide.

The public was heartbroken. That two young, sweet kids were killed in such a way in a city as peaceful as Maxville was something no one wanted to think about. But it had happened, and what everyone was asking was, where were the heroes?

Of course, the civilians didn't know that those two young, sweet kids were both part of the hero community, and that said community was going through the middle of a world wide crisis. As in all hell broke lose.

Powers were being lost, heroes were falling, villains were taking higher chances, and the authorities didn't know what the hell to do to stop it. There was no cure, no way of knowing whether it was transitory or not. They were all at a complete loss, waiting for it to end or, more likely, to finish with them all. The Strongholds were one of the first heroes to fall; as if having their son missing wasn't enough, they now also had to handle Maxville's citizens, who kept demanding to know why The Commander and Jetstream weren't there to protect them.

The media in general was blissfully unaware of the great disease, as it had been baptized, though supers were pretty much fretting. Half the teacher staff at Sky High was powerless, some had to be replaced, and the classrooms were noticeably emptied, as the students would either be still in a coma in the process of losing their powers, or having too much trouble coping up with their loss and that of their families to attend to classes. The only thing of consolation, if it was any consoling at all, was that villains were affected too, so while some heroes and sidekicks were no longer fit to protect the civilians, time showed there wasn't much a need to do so. The master villain minds were too busy trying to find out what the problem was.

Regardless the increasingly panicking situation, every single hero at hand had put in their two cents and checked under every rock not only in Maxville, but in the entire world, to find Will and Regina. Sky High's faculty had helped, questioning every student for information, as insignificant as it seamed. Their rooms were searched, as were their computers and phones. Will was clean, Regina was anything but. The sidekick expert that went through her files found out the classified information she'd "stolen" from Dr. Montgomery's laptop, which immediately put her in the way of whoever was behind the disease and for some reason didn't want her digging up. That did seamed unlikely, though, since not one of the researchers had suffered any sort of attempt toward their lives, and they were supposed to knew a lot more of the case than a seventeen year old girl.

On the mean time, the interrogations continued. Will and Regina's friends helped as much as they could, sharing every little detail that might help find them with haste. The heroes didn't think to find anything useful there, yet they were utterly surprised when it came the time to question Warren Peace.

He'd told them everything, everything about him and Regina, their secret relationship, their fight, the creepy stalker, everything. At last, after so much searching, there was a link between the two missing super teens.

It didn't help them much, though, since Warren was ruled out of the suspects list almost immediately since he had a perfectly sound alibi and no motive to do them harm. It was all confidential, so no one else knew about Warren and Regina other than the hero investigators, the Strongholds and the Boomowskis, and being confidential, it was only reasonable to believe soon after Warren's questioning, every Sky High student knew about him and Regina. Not that he really cared.

He had pictured many case scenario where he told the truth to Boomer in the past. Regina was next to him in every single one, and her uncle was partial to murder him after he found out in most of them, but reality proved definitely worst than imagination. It was horrible telling Boomer his only niece, whom he loved like his own daughter, had lied to him and snuk up to see Warren almost every night for over a month. There was pain in his eyes when he realized Regina hadn't trusted him that much and all desire to beat Warren senseless was put aside by the thought that he was, too, hurting, even if he strove to hide it away and pretend to be hardcore, and that he had known a part of his niece no one else did, not even Colin. All he did was promise Warren in very plain terms that once Regina was found, and they were _going_ to find her, the three of them would have a very long conversation.

Only fate wasn't on their side and things ended up differently.

Once found the dead bodies, all hopes crashed, grieve settled in the hearts of those who'd known Will and Regina. Warren had actually been at the Stronghold's along with Layla and the guys when officers of the Agency had showed up to give Will's parents the sad news that the bodies had been found. It was definitely the worst he'd ever seen them. Mr. Stronghold took it all out on his fellow heroes, trouncing them with all the might he had left after losing his abilities, while his wife had quietly slided to the floor, braced her knees tightly and started weeping in silence. Layla had shaken her head and run upstairs to Will's bedroom; in between tears, Magenta had followed her, leaving Zach and Ethan in the company of Warren.

He couldn't believe it... His best friend in the whole world was gone, _dead_, not ever coming back.

It just wasn't possible. Will was super-strong, he couldn't have been killed just like that. He'd saved Sky High from Royal Pain, was undefeated at Save the Citizen; he was a _very _resourceful guy. He could not have been killed just like that.

But the heroes wouldn't lie to them. It was true.

He looked around, watched the different ways the people around him showed their pain. Zach had bended over and buried his face on his lap; Ethan was stunned, staring into nowhere, his eyes moistening. Warren just sat there, unable to put a name to his turmoiling emotion, or show them in any way...

And then it dawned on him that the Agency guy had said _bodies_. Plural. Meaning they'd found Regina too.

And she was dead.

He didn't remember leaving the Strongholds' and driving up to Regina's, only knew he had gotten there extraordinarily fast, barely noticing before knocking that every single glass window in the house and the nearby ones was broken. He was received at the door by the maid, Mrs. McFlawly, whose puffy eyes and watering nose was as good a confirmation as any that the officers of the Agency had already reached them. Boomer and Evelyn Trewlyn weren't at home though, she informed him. They had been summoned to the city morgue to identify the body. Warren went directly upstairs, to the sanctum of her room. It was exactly like he'd remembered, neat and pretty with the big bed facing the vanity and the bathroom, and the window on the other side. It had been searched over in the lookout of any clue, yet it seamed like Regina had been the last one to be there and would soon be returning. He sat on the bed, rested his head against the pillow. It still smelled like her.

Guilt was burning his guts out, he could never forgive himself. What he'd told her before she disappeared, that she was a slut, he hadn't meant it, he _never_did; he just wanted to hurt her back, just as much as she was hurting him. He should have been more patient, pushing her into a relationship had only brought them apart. And now he could never apologize.

He would never kiss her again, feel her silky skin under his fingers, watch her run her fingers through her long, glorious aurburn hair, her eyes smiling, her lips curving in a tender smile.

He'd never again hear her voice.

He only noticed he was crying when the tears were running rampant through his cheeks and there was no way to stop them. And neither he wanted to. So he laid there and cried, safe in her room, where he could grieve her like he wanted, because outside the four walls that had been their refuge, he wouldn't be strong enough to do it.

He had to leave when Boomer and his fiancée returned; he figured they'd be going to Regina's room like he had, wanting to feel her warm presense one last time and pretend she wasn't gone. Before he left he decided to take a keepsake, something to remember her by and that nobody would miss. He reached for her underwear drawer and dig out the red and black negligé, grateful that she hadn't kept her promise and burnt it, then fondly folded it and stuffed it inside his bag.

He wasn't keeping it to remember the sexual side of their relationship, no matter how great it had been. Actually, quite far from it. When she'd worn it, he'd been happy to think, to feel, she was his and he was hers. Completely and beyond any doubt. It didn't matter that she'd backed at the last minute, or that she claimed she hadn't meant it, because he needed to believe she had, needed to treasure it.

After all, memories were all he had left now.

* * *

"She looks rather fine, don't you think?" George asked her brother, standing next to her, both looking at Regina's still form enclosed inside the coffin.

"Yeah, she does," Frannie bent his head to one side and then to the other. "Didn't think they take this long to dispatch them, though."

George shrugged. "You know what they say. Don't rush if you want things done right."

They moved away to let room for the next little group who wanted to pay their respects to the deceased.

"Tell me the statistics again. How far is the disease now?"

"89.3 % of European super population is dried out of powers. Africa adds another 63 %, Asia 29.9 %, South America 44 % and North America a total of 36% so far," Frannie recited by heart. "Europe will be done by tomorrow's afternoon, the other will keep falling by the end of the month. Six out of ten are already incubating here in Maxville, two out of five are in a coma and waking up between this night and the next."

"Who's next from our little party?" George asked.

"The Strongholds have been powerless for a week now, Magenta, Ethan and Zach should be waking up tonight, which suits them remarkably to attend Will's funeral. Kyle and Colin are already up –they're right across the room-, Flame Ember, Mrs. Hellfire and Layla have surely gone to bed last night and won't be waking up in two more days. Boomer will go down the same path any minute now. Then Medulla and Evelyn, though it might take them till the end of the month, say next week. Megan and Mike will be the last."

"And the Doc?"

"I'm guessing he'll be one of the last too."

"You're guessing? You, the master of luck and probabilities, are guessing?" his sister lifted one brow.

"So flattered," he nodded humbly, taking one hand to his heart.

"So what do we do now?"

"We wait."

"Hum."

"Yeah."

"I'm bored. Let's go watch the dead chick again."

* * *

Warren woke up with a massive headache and a very piercing pain in his forearm. The brightness in the room trespassed his shut lids and the beeping around him was starting to annoy him. His body felt numb, weightless, as if he were floating. But he wasn't, he could sense the mattress beneath him and the soft blankets all over him. He could hear what was going on around him; there were several sounds he quickly recognized, like the beeping of some machine and someone walking from one side to the other. As he regained more and more consciousness, Warren felt his senses intensifying, especially his touch; it was like ants were strolling down his body. Of course, he knew they weren't, but did that kept the visual image from implanting the uneasiness on his brain? No, it did not. There was another feeling too, one he wasn't familiar with... and just as uncomfortable as the ant-thingy... A chill suddenly crossed his spine.

A _chill._

Warren never had chills. His body temperature was always perfect, he was never cold, not even when he was sleeping.

Why on earth was he cold now? And where the hell was he?

Struggling, he opened his eyes, his efforts being received by a very derogatory chuckle produced, Warren assumed, by the person who'd been pacing down the room. He focused his vision and met an electric blue gaze, the very one he'd been looking for weeks...

"So, does the word "villain" follow the prefix super in your case?" the doctor standing next to his bed asked.

Warren, still dazed and having trouble focusing the men speaking to him, wasn't fit to answer.

"What'd you do, beat her to death, drowned her in the river? You couldn't just torch her, that would've been too telling, right?"

"Wha... what are you talking about?" His mouth was dry, he needed water.

"You killed Regina Boomowski," the doctor stated, a maniac glint in the corner of his eye. "I knew you were trash when you brought her, her hand burnt. I should've kicked your ass before you did anything else to her."

Warren sobered up immediatelly, sat and stared. "Are you kidding me? I didn't do anything to her!"

The other shook his head, not listening. "I'm gonna make you pay..."

"I did no kill Regina!" he stressed his words fiercely.

A cold hand closed around his heart, literally, keeping it from beating, his lungs from breathing. The doctor walked closer to the bed, where Warren was struggling frantically to cling to life, his face turning blue. He turned off all the beeping, it just wouldn't do that a nurse came and walked on them while they were so busy. There was hate in his eyes.

"I could kill you right now," he said quietly. "Justice would be served."

Warren was hardly paying any attention to him, he was more concerned by his body shutting down.

Suddenly, the hand restraining his heart let go and disappeared. He could actually feel the blood running again though his veins. But, other than assuring himself that he would, in fact, live to see another day, he paid little attention to his body going back to normal. The scene before him was so much more entertaining.

His would be killer/stalker was in the process of getting back on his feet after someone –Warren suspected Ethan since he was the one nearest to him and who looked guilty the most- had broken a flower vase in the back of his head. Colin Culpepper rushed to punch the doctor in the face before he was up and about, and succeeded, though he got an even harder punch in the ribs and landed against Kyle Grant, who just barely caught them both from falling.

It wasn't over there. Magenta, Zach and Ethan charged at once and managed to push him enough so that he got pressed against the wall, turning a chair and a small table full of flowers in the process. From the door Layla, wearing a hospital robe, cried for help. Mike Laineker and Megan Hazec appeared just then, the first heading directly along with his friend to were the other three were trying to contain the doctor.

Then the oddest thing happened. As if victims of stupor, Magenta, Zach and Ethan fell to the floor, their legs unable to support them, their faces blanching. Kyle and Colin crashed against the wall and the foot of the bed respectively, their hands pressing their temples, crying out loud, clearly in too much pain. Mike seamed to be struggling with pain too, though he remained standing and with one wave of his hand created a small explotion around the doctor's shoulder.

It was his turn to cry in pain. Once the smoke dissipated a hole in his scrubs showed a not so deep but definitely raw and hurting burnt injury. Rage up, he had Mike on his knees in one moment, struggling for breath as Warren had before. He would've killed him if Layla and Megan hadn't joined forces and shook him out of the room.

After considering for a fraction of a second whether he should get back and get the job done, the doctor run away, shouting to get everybody out of his way.

Warren struggled to his feet with no effort; he had to remain sitting. Around him, the rest were recovering from the various states of discomfort in which the doctor had left them.

"Thank God you came," was the first thing he could utter. Always serviseable, Layla run to his side and poured him a glass of water.

"Who was that guy and why was he trying to kill you?" Kyle asked.

"He thought I killed Regina."

"He knew her?"

"He's the one who always saw to Reggie," Megan explained. "When she came in for tests, and then her knee and her hand. Dr. Brand or something."

"No wonder she healed so readily," Magenta snorted and everybody turned to her. "She should've ended up cripple for the rest of her life, but her knee miraculously healed. I'm guessing if he can cause medical distress like he did on us, they he may be able to heal too."

"Why would he heal her?" Mike snorted. "He's clearly a villain."

"He'd been stalking her too," Warren added. The whole party gaped at him. "I tried to catch him one night, but he got away. I didn't know who he was, and I'm guessing Regina didn't either... but I'm positive it was him. I just recognized him."

"You know, we once run into him at the mall," Megan suddenly remembered. "Reggie had been feeling uncomfortable and was all jumpy, but when she saw it was him she calmed down. They even chatted for a while."

"So she knew him, but didn't know he was stalking her?" Zach scratched his brow. "Why was he stalking her? Was he like, in love with her or something?"

"You think he might be the killer?" Colin asked directly to Warren.

Warren was caught by surprise. That Colin, Regina's ex and who probably knew she had dumped him over Warren, was speaking to him hadn't been something Warren could've anticipated.

"I thought we decided Will's and Reggie's killer were one and the same," Layla cut in. "Will didn't know the doctor and he wasn't being followed."

"We can't rule anything out," Ethan observed. "Right now, that seams like the most likely case scenario, but we don't have any real clue."

"What are you all doing together?" Warren asked after a few minutes of silence. "I don't think we've ever been in the same room at the same time before today."

Glances were exchanged. Megan was the one chosen to talk. "We've decided to hunt down the murderer on our own. Together. We were the ones that knew Will and Reggie the best, so it's only reasonable that we can find more clues than any other heroes."

"Not to mention the emotional drive," Kyle put in and everyone nodded.

"Are you in?" Layla asked sweetly, her eyes framed by dark bags.

Few questions need no answer. That was one of them.

* * *

The knocking was soft, barely audible, yet enough to make Evelyn Trewlyn practically jump off her seat by Boomer's bed. She half turned to meet the visitor, immediately hiding her painfully telling features with a mask of composure that somewhat did the job. She nodded regally and Warren entered the private hospital bedroom.

It was considerably larger and nicer than the one he'd put in. It was in the opposite wing of the hospital, hence facing the gardens. It was highly unlikely that either the patient of his fiancée should pay any attention to the view, though.

"How's he doing?"

"He's been in a coma for fifty two hours, there're another twenty more to go," she replied quietly. "You may be seated if you like."

Warren pulled out a chair to the other side of the bed, facing her. "I'm sure he'll be fine. We all wake up."

Evelyn nodded swiftly, her hand grasping Boomer's over the blanket. "I know he will. I just keep wondering if he truly wants to."

Warren didn't know what to do or say. She clearly needed comforting, but he knew next to nothing about her, only little bits of information Regina had shared with him. On other times he would've used his omni-linguist abilities to figure her out, but given he'd lost his powers he could no longer do that.

"Regina was... very dear to Terrance. She..." she smiled sadly. "She was the light of his heart. Mine too, for that matter. Losing her has been tough, like dying a little bit every day. I keep expecting to walk in the kitchen and catch her baking something and singing," she gave a short bark of laughter. "And she really couldn't sing. I remember as a child, Mindreign would keep her quiet using her powers, but Reinie was so willful! Once the effect wore off she'd start singing again and again! I...," Evelyn broke into tears. "I can't even remember what was the last song I heard her singing. And I should remember! I ought to!"

"I do," Warren said. "She didn't know I was watching her... she was at the lab..." he smiled remembering the moment. "She was singing _Smoke in the water_."

Evelyn smiled warmly. "Was she humming all the guitar riffs?"

He nodded. "Oh, yeah, she was a great hummer," Warren's smile faded a little. "She was great."

He sighed dejectedly.

"Forgive me for asking, but what exactly happened between you two?"

He pierced her with his eyes for only a second; then he looked away. "It was my fault. I didn't want the... pressure of a relationship."

"Hum," Evelyn's pale green eyes returned to Boomer's sleeping face. "You know how I can't lie? It is a great inconvenience, and it's something that has always amazed me, the way people can do it so freely. You might even say it amazes me so much that I've become an expert at recognising lies," she glanced back. "Thank you for protecting her, but I'm yet to meet one person in the world that could not blend to Regina's command, either because of her powers or her natural willfulness and charm. Had she wanted to have an open relationship with you, she most certainly would have."

Hating she had to put in so plain terms, but knowing as well that every word was true, Warren nodded.

"Which isn't to say she didn't keep you in a especial place of her heart."

"I'm sure she did," bitterness tainted his words.

Evelyn shook her head. "She was fond of Colin," she went on. "She agreed to be his girlfriend, but it didn't last long. Your relationship didn't last much either, but she cared enough to hide it, to keep it to herself," she smiled warmly. "She wasn't ashamed of you. I think she cherished more than she ever cherished another boy before."

That, rationally speaking wasn't to say much, considering Regina's lack of relationships previous their own. Other than Culpepper, there was so much as no comparing point.

"Ah, you said something about there being only twenty hours left for Coach Boomer's coma..."

She nodded. "We've been aware of the coming of this disease for quite some time. One of the scientist involved with the research is an old acquaintance of mine."

"Regina knew?"

"Yes, she was very interested in the whole matter," she smiled again. "While searching through her stuff, one of the heroes found confidential information regarding the case in her laptop. How ever she managed to get her hands on that I've no idea."

"I'm sorry Lady Trewlyn," a nurse cut in from the threshold. "But it's time for Mr. Boomowski's sponge bath."

"Quite right," Evelyn left her seat. "I have to make a few calls. Terrance parents are at the cafeteria, I should meet them," she shook hands with Warren in a very graceful manner. "It was very kind of you to pay Terrance a visit. I shall tell him you came by."

With that, they parted, Evelyn t see her future in-laws and Warren back to his room, to wait for his discharge. A nurse was waiting for him there to inform him his mother had woken up and was desperate to see for herself that her son was, indeed, safe and sound. A quick visit convinced her of that, as well as the fact that they were both to be discharged later that day.

It was a very odd feeling, not being a pyro anymore; he omni-linguist abilities remain untouched, for some reason. For the first time in his life, he felt cold, amazing as that was.

He was actually wearing two sweaters and a jacket over his hospital robe, adding up to the three pairs of socks covering his feet. He looked, and felt, like a giant round marshmallow. Of course, his discomfort added up to just how miserable he'd been feeling since Regina and Will had went missing...

No matter how hard he tried to shake off the feeling, he was sure something was off with what had happened to them. He knew Will had been going to see him that night, so yes, maybe he'd encountered some villain he hadn't been able to defeat and he'd been kidnapped and later on killed, but where did Regina fit in all that? Megan said she'd left her party early, but she had no idea where she was heading. Regina might have simply been going home, but she'd been kidnapped on the same night as Will and their bodies had been found together. Not to mention it wasn't every day that a super kid went missing, least of all two. They had been kidnapped and killed together, by the same villain or villains, so how did that happen? Was she coming to see him, Warren, and met Will on the way...?

Why? Frowning, Warren walked down the halls of Maxville Presbyterian Hospital, almost expecting to bump into the answer around the next corner.

Did she want to tell him something? Maybe she'd found out who was following her and had wanted to inform Warren... maybe that doctor Brand or whatever had taken one step ahead and tried to approach her, she'd gotten scared and went to him to feel safer... but he had got to her first and Will had somehow got tangled in the middle of everything...? It was possible; like Ethan had said, they couldn't afford to rule anything out. But if that was so, why did the freak doctor had tried to kill him, Warren, after accusing him to be Regina's killer?

The two gangs met at Layla's that evening. Time was precious if they wanted to have at least one active powers on their side, and God only knew how much longer Megan and Mike would last before they fall into a coma and successively loose their powers. They decided they'd better set the time straight, in order to determine when and where Will and Regina had disappeared. The heroes and the police had already done that, their conclusions being that the kidnapping had taken place between 9.45 and midnight of the first Friday of February, since a red light camera had placed Regina on the area of Maxville's bus station at that time, while a young man matching Will's description was sighted on the surrounding area withing the same time frame.

Now, Layla had talked to Will around 9.30 and everything was fine, he didn't sound as if he'd seen anything weird or acting strange himself. When Megan had last talked to Regina she was "decidedly anxious, a little nervous and very much in a hurry", which led them all to believe that Regina not only had something important going on, but had also somehow got Will mixed up with it. So, before finding out who, they needed the why.

Luckily, they had ways to find the how, though that proved challenging. Ethan was the computers genius and had easily enough hacked into the police records and the Agency's data base. The forensic report was the first thing they checked.

Regina's car was completely clean, as in completely DNA free of any kind; there wasn't a single print or hair to be found in it, not even Regina's. The killer had obviously been extremely thorough.

The bodies were too. Other than water from the river they were as aseptic as an OR. There were no marks on the bodies, no trauma, no injure, no trace of drugs or poison. The many pages of the report showed no improvements in the investigation. It even ended saying that, other than the fact of being dead, Will Stronghold and Regina Boomowski were perfectly healthy.

It was very unlikely that they had just drop dead and into the river. How they'd been killed might not be out in the open, but there had been murder, without a doubt.

So, the how was not to be learned just yet, the who was even less likely, the when they pretty much had, as well as the where. It was time to narrow it down to the why.

They started by crossing all the villains that might have a grudge against Boomer and all the villains they knew held grudges against The Commander and Jetstream. Boomer's ultimate nemesis was Cry Master, who after following a short yet very producing career as a villain had quit and became a gym teacher at Elite Way High, while the list of bad guys against the Strongholds was remarkably long. Incidentally, Master Cry was not one of them.

"I get it that a villain might want to get to Will, but it doesn't really make any sense with Reggie," Megan had countered. "She's the daughter of two of their own, and her mother is still alive. Isn't there some sort of code against killing the kid of one of a fellow villain?"

"So a hero did it?" Magenta had replied in her usual sarcastic way.

"Hey, Popsicle said we shouldn't rule anything out."

Little confrontations would arise between the two gangs, mostly derived from frustration. One of the worst had been when they'd decided they should be focusing in what Regina had been doing before being kidnapped, since her odd behaviour seamed to be their only lead. Layla had gone ballistic when this was suggested, shouting in Will's sake and kicking them out of her house. Ten minutes later she'd called crying and said she was sorry.

They checked and re-checked the itinerary of her whereabouts the police and the heroes had come up with. There was no point in talking to the teachers whose classes she'd attended that day, that'd only be a waste of time. So, Magenta and Layla headed directly to the store Regina had picked up her dress from on the day on the kidnapping, playing the grieving friends who thought she had left a scarf with an incredible amount of emotional value on the shop. The shop attendant remembered nothing unusual, but showed them to the dressing room Regina'd used for her last fitting and spent thirty minutes looking for the non-existing scarf, while Kyle managed to sneak past the two guards the shop kept and get the security tapes of the day of the kidnapping.

On the mean time, Megan got the tapes of her party, Ethan hacked into the hospital records to get information on the doctor, Warren borrowed Regina's computer from Evelyn, Mike and Zach went to check out the place where Regina's car had been found and Colin tried to get something out of one of the morgue doctors.

Running through the tapes was very tiring. The only thing to be remarked on the shop's was that while leaving, Regina had collided with another girl and dropped her purse. The party recording was even more tiresome, since they had to actually locate Regina in the middle of the crowd, and she wasn't present in every shot. The little they could see, she seamed fine enough, till she left the room and went out to the terrace where the camara angle didn't get. She stayed there for a while, then a tall guy entered the room through the same way she had previously left, then she re-appeared and left in a hurry. They confirmed the time with the itinerary they had and determined the time for her leaving the party matched. Since the only angle possible of the terrace was one of a security camera, Kyle and Megan set up to get it from the hotel.

Ethan did an amazing job hacking into the hospital records and finding all there was to be found about Dr. Royce Brandsen. They now had his address, social security number, blood type, and schooling records. They checked those with the schools mentioned, and they matched as well. As for his criminal record, they met with yet another dead end.

"What'd you mean his juvenile record is sealed?"

"I mean it's not accessible to the public. Hence the term _sealed_," Ethan tiredly answered Kyle's question.

"So we have no way of knowing anything about him before he was eighteen?" Layla asked.

"Yep."

"What about his parents? Or his prior college education? Where did he use to live?"

Ethan sighed fatiguingly. "_Sealed_, people. All I got was the parents names. Carla and Jeffrey Brandsen. And yes, I tried to look into them too, but no, they don't have a criminal record."

"So the guy did something when he was young, but we have no way of knowing what it is?" Magenta cut in.

"It could be something as simple as shop lifting," Ethan shrugged. "Brandsen got into Columbia Pre Med and Med School after all, and that was before his record was sealed."

"And now he so happens to be a psycho?" Warren snorted. "There has to be something. I'm going to check out his place."

"Been there, done that," Ethan went on. Warren and the rest gaped at him. "What? I'm very thorough. I pretended to be from the Maxville Pres and called his reach number. It's a hotel, he keeps a room there. And hasn't returned since he left to work last night."

"That doesn't mean there nothing there..."

"Does he strike you like the kind of guy who would leave clues laying around a place he knows we will be looking just waiting for us?" Magenta replied Colin's question with a very meaningfull eye-rolling.

"Do I strike you like the kind of guy who enjoys your sarcasm?"

"If I were to begin to tell you what kind of guy you strike me as..."

"Magenta," Layla said tightly. She didn't need to extend. She then turned to Colin. "Did you find anything?"

"Only that the forensic department wanted to keep the bodies in formaldehyde and preserve them indefinitely for medical research. Nobody could come up with a reasonable cause of death," he turned to Warren. "What about Regina's computer?"

"She was geek," he said hiding a smile. He then proceeded to explain them all about Regina's information about the disease and how he was trying to decipher what were all her lists about, since she didn't explain herself or her reasoning. "If no doctor or hero had known about this, I'd say we have a motive, but I don't think this is it."

"Kyle and Megan are still trying to get the hotel tapes," Colin told them, reading a text he'd just got.

"So we have nothing," Layla put words to the thought in all their minds.

Not two seconds later, that statement was dismissed.

"We have something!" Zach cried as he jumped through the threshold. "Mike and I found major information, dude!"

"No, we didn't," Mike countered, entering in Zach's wake, visibly annoyed.

"It is AWSOME, man! I say, we already found the bad guys!"

"Either you make him quiet," Mike said wryly to the group. "Or I'll strangle him. He's been like that for hours."

Layla, Ethan and Magenta forced an apoloctic smile. "Zach can be very _enthusiastic_..." Ethan began.

"He can't be forced to shut the hell up," Magenta specified.

"Then I'll strangle him."

Before he kept his promise, Colin showed him to the couch and put a soda in his hand. Warren turned to Zach, who was struggling to keep all his exuberant emotions at the lowest ebb. "What'd you find?"

"It's aliens, man! Little green men with giant heads and weird eyes!" he jumped.

Silence followed that.

"Can I strangle him now?" Mike went on, but he was ignored.

"Aliens?" Layla said carefully.

"Yeah," Zach nodded. "We have an eye witnees and all..."

"He's a drunk!" Mike exploded. "He even admits he was way down his Johnnie Walker when he thought he saw a space ship on the night of the kidnapping."

"But he _did_ see it. And he lives above the gas station only a mile away from the spot Reggie's car was found," he told the rest.

"He lives _above_ a gas station," Mike repeated, raising his hands to the sky. "and he is a drunk! He saw a plane!"

"A space ship!" Zach stressed.

"I'm this close to wring your neck!" there was hardly any room between Mike's thumb and forefinger.

"He said he saw a large triangular-shaped craft with lighted windows," Zach insisted.

"He also said he kept perfectly reasonable conversations with his opossum and that he'd marry it if the state would allow him," Mike retorted.

"I thought real aliens had stopped visiting the Earth after striking a deal with the Washington Head of the Hero Agency?" Layla looked at Ethan.

"There's an easy way to find out if the gas station guy saw anything at all."

"Where are you hacking in now?" Warren walked toward him and stood behind him so he could stare at the screen.

"NASA, and the Homeland Security Satellite Network," a few minutes passed, then Ethan smiled. "Okay, on the night of the kidnapping the satellite caught something around the area Reggie's car was dumped, around three a.m. see it, right here?" he pointed at a relatively small triangular shape on the sky charts they were looking at. "The official report says it's a weather balloon."

Zach crossed his arms and smugly grinned at Mike. The other just stared back.

"Don't mean he wasn't a sicko drunk."

"Hold on, let me check something."

Ethan hit some more keys and more charts appeared, which he studied silently, occasionally frowning. After five minutes had passed and he hadn't even intended to say a word –not to mention his frown was getting worse by the second- the rest of the group's expectation resisted no longer.

"What is it?" Magenta urged him on.

"This is the chart of the same night, only it featured the bus station area on the time frame we suppose the kidnapping actually occurred. 10:06 p.m. And these," he hit another key. "are the charts of the day the bodies were found. I followed the river to see if I found anything and... well..."

"The weather balloon apears in all three charts," Colin said in awe.

"It still doesn't mean it's aliens," Warren determined and Mike smiled thankfully. "Lots of heroes and villains keep triangular ships. It could be a villain, like we thought."

"Does Brandsen keep a storage or something like that?" Layla asked and Ethan quickly shook his head. "Doesn't mean he doesn't."

"So we basically have something that could be, but we have no way to prove it?" Silence followed Magenta's question. "Great. Wouldn't be fun if we didn't."

* * *

"This is bad. Like a Greek tragedy bad," Mason was saying as he paced up and down the small quarters he and his siblings were sharing.

"A Greek tragedy having a baby with a biblical catastrophe," Frannie added, pacing as well, only in different direction than his twin. "A Greek tragedy of biblical proportions. _That's_ what this is."

"Frannie, stop biting your nails," George said from the couch. "You know mom hates it when you do that."

"George, mom is no here, so could you please, for a fraction of a second, stop bringing her up into our conversations?" Mason retorted harshly.

"Hey, don't yell at Georgie," Owen cut in warningly.

"Don't play the big brother now when this is all your fault!" Mason stopped his pacing in front of him, who had been sitting in front of the central computer for the past half hour.

"How many times do I need to apologize?"

"_I'm sorry_ means nothing when we don't know what the hell is going to happen!"

"Hey, fighting between us isn't going to help," George cut in. "We can still fix this."

"Pray tell, how, oh wise one." Mason snorted, reassuming his pacing.

"We have this original time line, where Doxy didn't get herself kidnapped and her gang and Stronghold's never mixed. So, while Stronghold's friends tried to find his murderer, Doxy went to Montgomery with her theory about the disease, then the banners would have been posted all around America blaming our favourite villain, and then he would've freaked out and gone to Doxy and set it all right. Then, and only then, all hell would've broken lose. Right?"

"Right," came from the three brothers.

"So," George smiled brightly. "All we have to do is give them a little help and get things straight."

"That sounds good, George, even logical," Frannie said with dripping sarcasm. "There is only one little problem. You see, Dockside Doxy plays a big role in this whole thing, and since she's dead to the world..."

"I guess we could help out Doc onto the right way..." Owen suggested.

"And keep Flame Ember and the others clueless..." Mason added, only slightly grudgingly.

"Yes! And Doxy's part... well, that'll come up later," George nodded.

"Okay," Owen nodded back. "Let's get to work people."

* * *

Maxville city had no docks. In fact, all the river coast was building free. Ecologist were happy, Warren and the rest of the guys were not. If there were no buildings then there was no people to be found who could have seen the allegedly ship the satellite had recorded on the day the bodies were dumped on the river. The police hadn't known about the ship, but they had checked the zone after the bodies appeared and no trace of any kind of automobile that could have transported the bodies was found. It was perfectly sensible to assume they had been dropped from a ship or plane of sorts.

Cain was a bar, the nearest one to the river coast and also right on the same streat as a warehouse and a junkyard. It was hardly one of Maxville's prime locations, yet it suited their goal: to find someone who saw something. Anything.

Warren, Layla, Kyle and Mike were the ones with that job, the first because he'd already been there before, back when he was working at the Paper Lantern and delivered orders, the other two just to be supportive, and Mike because he had to be pulled away from Zach when he actually started to strangle him. The place was full, all tables taken. They needed a table so they could blend in, it wasn't like they were prone to flying a flag and say "we're here trying to find a murderer". They needed to be subtle.

They walked together across the room to a table already occupied by two rough-looking men and, after such a few lousy weeks preceeding them, Kyle felt a small bit of his humor returning as he watched Warren get to the table before the rest, stop there and stare the guys into hastily vacating their seats. "So cool how you do that, dude."

Warren just sat down in one of the empty chairs and answered from the short end of his temper. "Do what?"

"Put murder and mayhem in those two little chocolate orbs of yours."

"Is it his fault if those guys thought he he wanted to harm them?" Layla defended him as she took the seat next to Warren. "He didn't, you know. Anyone who knows him will tell you that. He's the most peaceable guy this side of—"

"Hell?" Mike put in.

"Well, he is!" she stated and turned to Warren for confirmation. All she got was blank stare. "You were..." she said more hesitantly.

"Can we focus here, please?" he replied. "The waitress is coming. You," he looked at Mike. "See if you can get anything out of her."

The woman knew nothing, though in all fairness she could barely remember what she'd been doing the night before. she did took pity on them when they told her they were the friends of the two kids who'd been murdered, and promised to ask around the tables for them. Only fifteen minutes later she returned to their table with their order and the report that, though she hadn't yet asked everyone, so far she had no useful information.

* * *

Ray Brandsen really missed his room at the Dragonfly Inn, the place that had been his "home" ever since he'd come to take his internship at Maxville Presbyterian Hospital. It was, after all, a nice room, perfectly fit to his needs, with the large comfortable bed and huge tub he used to sink into after a hard day's work, with everything always tidy and right-on room service; not to mention it had heating. The Dragonfly Inn room was indeed ideal.

The one he was currently staying at, on the other hand, was it's complete opposite. The bed was awful, it had odd lumps everywhere and it smelled funny, he wouldn't have been able to sleep in it even if the Sleep freaking fairy had visited him. The bathroom, if it could be called a bathroom at all, followed down the same lines; he was a big man, very tall and, however lean, he still occupied a lot of room, so the four feet square bathroom was in no way capable to fit him comfortably. And it din't have a tub, just a fungi shower he daren't used, afraid he might get a Staph infection or something worse.

But the worst thing about the room he was staying at now was the bar bebeath it. The place _never _closed, it was always noisy and full of drunks, therefore keeping him from concentrating on the things he should be thinking of, not to mention the owner was the pettiest landlord ever and his daughter, who worked as a waitress, showed no qualms in hinting, quite openly and frequently, that she would love to spend some alone time with Ray in his room. Altogether, it was massive murder waiting to happen.

If only he hadn't blown his cover... he could be doing all his pondering quietly at the Dragonfly Inn instead of that God forsaken place. But no, he had to do the foolishly thing and attemptd to kill Warren Peace. Well, he didn't actually regret _trying_ to kill him, it was that he'd been interrupted by his friends what bothered him, that and having to hide when he needed to be out there, avenging Regina...

Three dry knocks on his door drew him out of his thought. Grudgingly, he left the chair he'd been sitting on by the window, feeling only a little comfort it was most certainly not the waitress, since her knocking –and she had knocked at his door too many times, unwilling to take _no _for an answer- was softer and more feminine, unlike the loud pondering.

"Who is it?" Ray called when he reached the door.

"Room service."

_Yeah, right. _Suspicion arose, he opened the door just a bit so he could see who was behind it. There were two guys, only a couple of years younger than himself, evidently twins, both tall, handsome and dark haired.

The first thing that caught his attention were the twins' eyes, so uncommon; he was used to his own, a very bright and shocking shade of blue, but that hadn't prepared Ray to witness their eyes. And they were real, he was completely sure about that, being able to control other's molecules gave him the power to know which part of one's body were real and which weren't.

The one on the left had royal purple eyes, very deep and intimidating, looking at them was like sinking into a bottomless pool. It was a color you didn't normally see, but as a doctor, Ray knew of several medical conditions which would cause such eye color. He then turned to the twin on the right, and found eyes just as disturbing, only this time they were electric indigo, a shade of color he knew for sure couldn't be found in nature. Between blue and violet, that particular shade inclined more for the second, and the look they had was hard and uncompassionate.

In only an instant, Ray took in all he needed to know about the two young men; they weren't room service, obviously, in fact, he was sure they hadn't taken orders for one day on their lives; the haircut was the same -very short-, but the clothes weren't, and their movements and manners were both telling and deceiving on the same time –they seamed relaxed and cool, but they were actually calculated to last inch. Right now, they had the same facial expression, unperturbed and conceiving, though he didn't doubt that on a day-by-day basis that wasn't so. What is more, he coldn't detect a single expression or movement or look that would set them apart, which clearly meant they were trying to act as one, so he couldn't get anything they didn't want known. They looked professional, but not in the way Ray was, more like someone who had done whatever they were doing right now more than once.

"I thought there was no room service," Ray started carefully.

"Thought right," the twin on the left smiled wickedly. "Why don't you let us in, Royce? It's kinda chilly in the hallway."

Ray frowned. "How do you know my name?"

"We know a lot about you," the other twin said, mimicking his brother's smile.

Shields up. "Well, if you know so much about me then you know you'd better not mess with me."

The twins looked at each other and smiled smugly.

"See, this is when we tell you we just wanna talk..."

"And you say you're not interested and you threaten us with bodily harm..."

"... then we gladly threaten you back..."

"... after which we'll engage in a fight you, and only you, will be the loser of, since you're not only out-numbered but also out-powered..."

"...and believe us we can take you down before you can spell ASAP..."

"So why don't we just skip all that and cut to the chase?"

Ray was actually speechless for a moment after the divided monologue. After his recovery, though, which didn't last long to come, he was still firmly reticent to allow the entrance to the pigpen he called room. They might know some things about him, and that was yet to be probed, but he knew better. Never let the enemy into your territory unless you've previously set proper tramps for them.

"Look," the one with the disturbing indigo eyes began one more time. "My name is Francis, this is m'brother Mason. We have some information we thing might interest you."

"We're only trying to help."

"Information about what?" curiosity peaked up.

"Regina Roxanne Boomowski," the twins said at once.

* * *

Things coul not get worse.

Yet somehow they did.

It was very hard to believe they had, and oh-so-badly. Will and Regina had been kidnapped, killed somehow and dumped into the river, there was absolutely no lead as to who had done it, where or why, so was it absolutely necessary that after the everlasting hell the guilty villains had put them through that they _also _stole the bodies from their final resting place?Did they need to keep hurting the Strongholds, the Boomowskies and all the people who had known and cherished Will and Regina?

Warren couldn't believe it. He actually had refused to when Ethan calld late at night after he'd returned from the bar they'd been searching for clues. He got extremely angry at his friend, calling him a liar and telling him it wasn't cool to joke about such a delicate issue, while Ethan patiently asked him to turn on the news and see it for himself.

He had hung up after he did that, unable to focus his mind into anything beside the horrid events the reporter was telling. Someone had broken into Maxville's cemetery, dug up Will and Regina's coffins, opened them, and taken them away. Again, no evidence as to who might be the guilty was found and, again, the families hurt was displayed on the prime-time. The only member of either family who spoke to the media was Evelyn Trewlyn as she left the Agency with Boomer –who by the by looked like he would like to occupy his niece's empty coffin. She asked the reporters, harshly and very unladylike, to "please, for the goodness of your hearts, stop burdening us in our time of sorrow. Go find some other road animal to poke your sticks at".

The few heroes who still had their powers, and some of the ones who didn't anymore, found nothing help-full. No transportation traces, no footprints, no fingerprints, no DNA evidence, no eye witness, no motive, no culprit. Another painful dead end.

Finding the bad guy on their own beca more and more pressing, though they were more or less as unlucky as the heroes. They did get the hotel security camera tapes, and a pretty clear frontal view of the guy Regina had spent some time with out in the terrace the night she disappeared, but to go by the body language of their conversation –the camera didn't include audio- it was highly harmless. Regina even ended up the chat laughing.

The UFO theory was very, very weak. The ship's shape was regular among heroes and villains alike, it could be anybody's and since villains unsually had their own takeoff ports it was unlikely that they could find any kind of record that showed which ships where on the air on the days they were investigation. The charts didn't help with this either, it was like the ships were there for a second, but next they were gone and there was no trace of them in the entire sky.

But if all that wasn't enough to convince them the UFO theory was crap, finding out the triangular shaped ship didn't appear at all on the charts of the night the bodies were dug up was what did it.

Brandsen was gone off too, and they had checked everywhere to find him or anything that would tell them why he was so fixated on Regina and whether it had been bad enough to kill her.

Nothing had come up.

Their main theory said Brandsn was the villain, he kept a ship, he had for some reason gone after Regina, Will had somehow got tangled in the middle of everything and then Brandsen had decided to take them both to do away with all the evidence. He had killed them, dumped them and had now retrieved the bodies because he was one sick, sick fellow. Proving it, on the other hand, was another matter; Brandsen was in fact a model citizen. So, three days after eagerly setting off to find their friends' murderer, Warren and the other gave up.

The decision was made as a group, all together in a coffee house down town, just in front of the park. They had put two tables to fit them all and after discussing almost endlessly they finally reached the sad conclusion that no, there was nothing they could do about the murderer and yes, they had failed their friends' memory. The hardest part, realizing that they had no say in the way Will's and Regina's bodies, the last thing in this earth that remained of them, would spend the eternity, of the horrors the murderer could be putting them through for the pity pleasure of insulting hat was left of their memory.

So consuming their feelings were, they didn't notice when the screams began. As they got louder and louder, people running rampant doen the street, away from something Warren and the others were yet to see, they rapidly came of their absent minded state, stood up and looked out the window, eyes widening, unbelieving.

But it was there, the ship the charts had shown, triangular with lighted windows, magnificently huge. Made of mirror-like metal, with a ramp opening up for the creatures to go down to solid ground, by itself bred panic. The creatures, _aliens_, only five or six of them, were very small, like children, only more creepy. They looked like they would break if you grabbed them too hard, so thin they were. Their bodies were covered from the neck to the ankles by a thin, water-like material, in the form of a sort of sleeveless dress. Their bare bonny arms ended in what should be hands, only they had only to fingers, and they were united by a membrane.

They carried metallic rods like a wizard would their wand. They weren't green and they didn't have have giant heads. Instead their white skin was only perturbed by by what one wold call spots, with a slightly infected look. Like a rash. Their eyes had no pupils, they were red as well and catlike. They took up three quarters of their small diamond shaped faces, and they had no nones, mouth or ears that could be seen.

The gang gaped at the scene before them, each and every single one of them expecting to wake up any minute now. Zach, Ethan and Kyle actually pinche themselves.

"Spotlight was right, they were aliens!" Mike exclaimed and turned to look at him. "I'm so sorry I tried to strangle you all those times."

"S'Okay, I'm used to it," Zach replied humbly. The landing of the alien ship had taken away all the fun of rejoicing in saying _I told you so_.

"Just because they're here doesn't mean they're the ones that killed Will and Regina," Magenta answered the question everyone was thinking, but no one managed to muster. "What would aliens want to do with them after all?"

"So, should we... I don't know... make contact with them?" Layla said. "As members of the hero community it's our responsibility to make them feel comfortable..."

The alien leading the entourage raised his skiny arm, handling the metalic rod, and pointed it at a line of cars. They instantly caught fire.

"Don't think that would translate as _we come in peace_!" Warren shouted over the yelling of the scared civilians. "We have to get these people out of here!"

Easy enough since the civilians were smart to realize that running in the opposite direction of the alien ship was the wisest idea they could have possibly come up with. The aliens, meanwhile, didn't stop at setting the cars on fire; rods up, the flaming cars were sent flying toward the shops nearby and the park, while the earth shook mercilessly, the sky turned stormy and the ground exploded in areas due to a sudden high pressure in the water and gas plumbing running under the city.

Megan and Mike were the only ones who remained with powers, and since Megan could copy only Mike's powers they were pretty limited when defending Maxville's endangered civilians. They tried to blow up the aliens, but they had a force field protecting them and their ship, so they set up to blow up the flying cars instead, while Warren and the others strove to get the people out of the burning shops and the torched park. Loud sirens were heard everywhere calling for the heroes who would be there in few minutes, but it might be too late then: the aliens were aiming at more challenging blanks, mostly in the form of large groups of civilians.

The group Warren was shepherding away was the first one threatened –Megan and Miked missed it since the aliens had also decided to go at it against them-, and he could say in all honesty that he saw his life pass by in front of his eyes, certain silver eyed girl being the last thing he registred, so certain he was that the car would fall over him and his group and killed them.

But the oddest thing happened right then. A large fireball, big and apparently solid enough to hit the car and set it off it's course, came out of somewhere on his left, utterly saving their asses off. For a fraction of a second Warren wondered if his powers had somehow returned, but just as quickly dismissed that idea. He had never even tried to produce a fireball of that magnificent size. Desperately needing to know to whom he owed his life, he turned and faced his saviour.

And found himself facing the guy Regina had spoken to on the terrace at Megan's party.

Right before she had disappeared.

The guy had powers. Big time. Could he possibly be...? No, that wasn't likely. He wouldn't have saved him if he was in fact Will and Regina's murderer. Warren stood there, confused, shocked, intrigued, all on the same time, comparing the guy in front of him with the images form the security camera. He was more intimidating in person, as tall as Warren, wide of chest and with the most disturbing eyes he'd ever seen, so brightly violet. And, he was wearing a jumpsuit, black leather all over. No zip, no tool melt. Who the hell was this guy?

"Well, don't just stand there!" the guy called in a deep voice. "Those people need herding!"

Warren swallowed the angry comeback he would've like to yell back at him for assuming command so hastily, and quickly did away with his civillians; then a female scream distracted him. He quickly located Layla and Magenta fighting off what seamed to be vines, which were whipping them and trying to tie them and their group of civilians. Another unknown guy jumped in the picture, wearing the exact same jumpsuit than the violet eyed guy, and went to help them at once, throwing a metallic boomerang at the vines. Not only the boomerang hit them, but the thing kept coming back for more, over and over, slicing the vines into small pieces till there was nothing left, then returning to its owner while he threw small knives one after the other at the aliens, passing through their force field as if it wasn't even there and actually hitting them.

Since the girls were visibly out of danger and taking care of their group, Warren headed to help Zach and Ethan who had just entered a torched store. The place was smoking hot, and not in the good way. Cursing not having his powers for the tenth time since the ship had landed, he covered him nose and mouth with his sleeve, calling for his friends. Finally he found them on the back with three men and a little girl. The men were intoxicated and two of them needed carrying, as did the girl.

Outside, pandemonium reigned. There were no more running civilians, only a squad of firemen and police officers, who more than helping were on the way of a third guy wearing the black jumpsuit, the responsible of melting the pavement the ship had landed on, which quickly got swamped into the street. The aliens didn't appreciate this; they were producing the most annoying noises, like continuous white noise, making it hard to think straight. The pyrokinetic guy was working in union with the guy with the blades, who would throw them and then the pyro would set them afire while they reached the aliens. There was another of their group, a girl younger than all of them, who was standing in the middle of the street in front of the officers and the firemen and was instructing them to direct the people to their homes and then evacuate them till Maxville became safe again.

The aliens gave them no qualm. Fireballs flew around, and the guy who had swamped the ship disintegrated them in midair, while ice-balls flew in the opposite direction, and the pyro melt them with his fire, and solid objects became alive and the blade twin fought them off with remarkable skill. The girl stuck near the group.

Warren and the other regrouped as well, having nothing better to do. Some displayed scorched clothes, bloody noses and dust and ashes covered them all.

"Friends or foes?" Colin asked panting for air.

"Well, they are fighting off the aliens... what is it?" Mike caught Megan by the elbow before she fell and supported her. She looked just about fainting.

"They are so powerful," she whispered.

"The supers or the aliens?"

"The supers have some nice powers, but I mean the rods... that's where the aliens' powers concentrate."

"Oh my Goddess!" Layla cried.

Cursing, Warren turned to see what the problem was _now_.

_Fuck. _

Brandsen was passing by their allegedly saviours –who actually made room for him- and through the aliens' force field, up the ramp and into the depth of the space ship. The aliens didn't even seam to see him run by them.

"We have to follow him!" Warren shouted in all desperation.

They run to the ship, on shiny beam of hope warming their hearts at last. They were going to catch him this time...

"Not so fast."

Suddenly, their bodies felt heavy, so heavy they couldn't stand straight. They all fell to the ground, faces pressed hard against the pavement, struggling pointlessly to get up, when all they managed was that the pressure grew higher. It felt like they were made of lead.

Warren tried to crawl, and he actually advanced a few feet before he encountered two pairs of lether boots, one smaller than the other with nicely torned calves; evidently, the girl and one of the guys. He raised his head as much as he could without breaking his neck and looked right into a pair of deep, royal purple eyes, enclosed of the handsome face of the twin who could melt pavement.

"You're not supposed to go in there," he said in a mocking tone.

"Like hell I am! Let me go or I..." arren threatened through gritted teeth.

"You shouldn't make threats you know you can't keep up to," the girl advised and Warren turned his eyes to hers. They were the lightest shade of lilac. Another freak. "It weakens your position."

He swore loud and hard to that little tid bit of wisdom.

"With that dirty mouth you say _I love you_?" the guy shook his head. "My, my, what are gonna do with you?"

The girl's laughter was the last sound Warren heard before feeling vanished. The pressure was gone, as the pavement beneath him, the smell of the street and the sounds of the battle that was still being fought to keep the aliens at bay. Next thing he knew he was laying face down over something hard, but it wasn't the street's pavement... it was similar, though, but quieter and much more chilly.

"How the hell did we get here?" he heard Zach ask.

"Don't look at me," Colin retorted. "I'm long ago dried out of powers."

Warren struggled to his feet, opening his eyes. Beyond the roof they were now standing at, there was nothing but stormy sky, completely dark with tornadoes forming in the distance and lightnings illuminating it more often than not.

"We're at Sky High," Warren stated, finding it hard to believe it possible. "They transportated us to the school. Why would they do that?"

"That's why," Megan replied in a small voice, looking down on the school campus.

Buses were landing, people already getting inside the school, and not only students. There were supers getting off their jet-packs, groups of families with old people and small children, all seeking refuge at Sky High.

Before anyone could ask out loud "What's going on?" they saw it. Behind them, hovering the stormy sky, at least twenty space ships were floating about, all triangular with lighted windows, all threatening.

It was doom, and it had come.

* * *

The ship was a freaking labyrinth, one wrong turn and he would end up in a dead end. It took Ray Brandsen almost half and hour finding the room he was after and not because his powers were failing. He could feel the molecules of the person he was looking for and knew exactly where he should be going, but the spiral hallways were one tricky business.

At last he found it, in a hallway exactly identical to all the others, except behind this door, vindication awaited him.

Opening the door was easy. The aliens were living beings after all, and he could rearrange they left over DNA to fit the touch scree that would allow him entrance. Very easy enough.

It opened, and the person he had been looking for was in there, clearly not expecting to see _him_ of all people. His goal. His vindication.

"You are _so_ dead," Ray gritted out.

* * *

**I trust you want to rip my head off, so please, let me know by reviewing.**


	21. War and Peace, Part 1

**hello you guys! I'm back with a new chapter and two announcements:**

**1. next chapter will take me longer than two. probably. if not, it'll be up, but don't be wooried if not.**

**2. this fic is getting to its end. I mean, there are four chapters and one epilogue to go, so it's not like we're done, but, you know, I thought you should know I don't plan on keep on and on indefinitely.**

**so, that's it. please, read, enjoy and review!  
**

Chapter twenty one: War and Peace, part 1

The look on her face said _Holy Crow, what comes next?_ Her eyebrows shot up really helped with the effect. But it was really her jaw hitting her hips what made it look so funny.

"I've made lists of people who might come to rescue me," she started. "But you weren't part of any of them. And I even included my mother."

"Sorry to disappoint you," Ray retorted. "Get up, get dressed, I'm taking you to Sky High."

"Yes, totally. I am leaving this ship with someone I don't know," her nod did not by no means made her statement sound less ironic.

"Are you aware this ship is crewed by aliens?"

"They've been pretty nice to me," she said quietly. "Food's a little off... and they do keep me in a lot of drugs which I'm not sure the effect they have on me, but overall, I'm perfectly fine here."

Ray narrowed his eyes and walked closer to Regina. "Drop your pants," he demanded.

"Okay."

She quickly loose her aseptic pants leash and let them fall to the floor around her bare ankles, all without looking perturbed. One glance, and Ray needed no more.

"You know you're good, but you're not Regina," he closed his hand around her neck. "But you're gonna vindicate yourself and tell me where she is."

She smiled. "Regina Boomowski was found defective and terminated. Her remains were sent back to earth where they reside in a coffin six feet underground. I'm her improved version; you can love me as much as you love her."

"Sorry," his hand tigtened around her neck. "I don't do remakes."

Ray stepped away, but he kept her throat closed. As he walked out of the room he heard her crumble to the floor, lifeless.

_Great,_ he thought. _Now I have to start all over again._

_

* * *

_"Where the hell have you been? I've been calling for the past hour! Is this the way to treat your mother?"

"I was lying unconscious in the school's roof," Warren replied, his anger just as high as his mother's.

"Unconscious on a roof...? Are you doing drugs?" she asked shaking her head. "I know these have been difficult weeks for you, but using is never the answer!"

He sighed tiredly, shoving his hands to his face to rub in a sign of frustration. If she would just listen to him instead of jumping to conclusions then they might bring some peace and order to this whole mess. But, considering their surroundings, that wasn't likely.

Word had gone out about aliens invading the planet, and Maxville hadn't been their only blank. The entire world was under attack, and all the population was being evacuated into safe locations, but due to the short time notice not much could be done. The supers were regrouping too at the hero training schools and other facilities of the kind, at least those who had no powers and therefore would only be on the way of the heroes who did were they outside.

Entire families had settled in Sky High, cries were shouted from one end of the gym to the other, and no matter how large the place was, it still was in no way able to fit everybody. And it wasn't just the students and their families: Foster prison had been moved to there too, since the villains' wicked minds might come up with something the heroes' wouldn't to get rid of the aliens.

Regroup and retaliate, that was their M.O. from now on.

"I'm sure he has a perfectly good explanation," Barron Battle said as he appeared behind Melanie.

She jumped and shoved a hand to her heart. "Don't sneak up on me! I didn't like it before and I still don't!"

"I didn't sneak up on you," Barron retorted with a charming smile that didn't work a little bit on his ex wife. "You just didn't happen to notice me coming behind you. It's entirely your fault," and then, before Melanie could retort to that, he turned to Warren with a questioning look. "So? Let's hear it."

He told him what had happened with the aliens, the supers with the weird eyes whom they weren't sure whether they were friends or foes yet, Brandsen and their teleporting from downtown Maxville to the school's roof.

"First of all," his mother started admonishing. "it was a really stupid thing, going after your friends' killer like that. You're kids! How can you forget that? Have you any idea how I would've felt if something happened to you?"

"Mellie, I'm sure he understands and he's sorry..." Barron tried to put his arm around hers, but Melanie wasn't interested.

"Don't you try tell how to deal with my son. And you," she turned to Warren. "I get it, you're hurting. But you can't go around and risk yourself like that!"

"Isn't that what I'm being trained here for?!"

"High school doesn't prepare you for this kind of things!"

"You're drawing too many looks..." Barron tried to calm them down.

They didn't listen. "All you want is me to be safe, but Will and Reg were kidnapped near our home; it could have been me! Haven't you thought about that?"

"They wouldn't have wanted you to risk your life like this!"

"Seriously, people are giving us the mean eye..."

"They would've done the same thing for me!"

"I don't care, you're my boy and I want you safe!"

"If you could just lower it down just a bit..."

"Well, then I guess you got what you wanted," Warren started to walk away. "I'm here and I'm safe," he turned to face them among the corwd. "But not for long!"

Melanie gritted her teeth.

"You know how teenagers are..."

"Shut up, Barron."

* * *

"Where have you been? I've been waiting and waiting!" Regina cried as Ray walked into yet another room, the third he'd visited so far.

"Where's Regina Boomowski?"

"I'm Regina Boomowski!"

"No," he shook his head. "She wouldn't be waiting or me."

He finished her off by stopping her beating heart and returned to the hallway. He didn't know how much time he had before the aliens returned to the ship and caught him, but he needed to find Regina before that, so he could take her off the ship.

Ray didn't hesitate about his killing her clones. They might be genetically perfect, but the aliens hadn't managed to recreate the human mind. The clones had no original thoughts; they were programmed to act as Regina, but they didn't get it. They didn't get _her_. So she had to be kept somewhere, in order to keep cloning her and her behaviour. At least that was what Francis and Mason thought.

The twins knew a lot about Regina, how, he didn't know. When they came to his room they told him Regina wasn't the one buried under her name, that the real Regina had scars and a tattoo on her low abdomen her clone, the one buried, didn't have. He proved that very eaily, getting her medical records of her last check-up and reading the signed report that said the three little blue stars were there.

So what else than digging her up could be the solution to his problem? He did it and saw they were right. The scar on her knee, the one he'd reduced as much as posible, was gone,

as the one from the burning on her hand, and there was no trace of the tattoo that had supposedly been there. He took her body away to inspect it more carefully, and took Stronghold's as well, only to keep appearances, but it was reasonable to believe that if Regina had been cloned and dumped in the river, then he had been too.

There was a fourth possible Regina in the next hallway. Now he wasn't expecting to find her in that part of the ship, though he was sure he could tell them apart very well. Like he had before, he opened the door.

And he was hit in the head with one hard fist and pushed aside.

His abuser run past him, out of the room and down the hallway. Unfortunately for her, she had short legs and Ray covered the distance between himself and her in an instant, grabbed her by the elbow, pulled back and trapped her against his chest.

He'd expected her to wriggle and squirm, to kick back with her legs, all useless. Instead, she gulped in a breath, stretched, reached back, grabbed Ray's ears and tugged as hard as she could. He howled and jerked his head back, causing her nails to scorn deeply into his cheeks.

Visibly suppressing a few curses, Ray half carried, half pushed her on before him back to the room. She fought and twisted furiously, but did no more than slow him. As soon as he crossed the threshold he let her go and she jerked away, as the door slid closed behind him, looking for projectiles.

The room was completely empty except for the egg shaped bed fixed against one wall; the only thing she could defend herself with was the square shaped pillow, which she weild before her like a sword.

"Where the hell am I?" she cried.

"That hurt," Ray commented calmly, sensing the raw flesh of his cheeks. "That's not cool. Where's Regina Boomowski?"

"Where am I?" she cried again, he voice shaking, her eyes unfocused. "Who are you?"

He looked straight into her eyes. "You're the most defective version so far..."

"I've never seen you before! Where am I?"

He noticed her chest up and down, her heart beating faster than normal, her mind working oddly. "They really screwed up with you, didn't they?"

"I've never seen you before! Where am I?"

"It's okay," he walked a few steps closer, only to have her retreat till she hit the bed with the back of her thighs. "I'm going to make you feel better."

"I- I don't think that's a good idea," she shook her head, her eyes going from one way to the other, focusing in anything but Ray's.

"Don't worry," he caressed the top of her head.

She calmed down instantly, then crumbled lifeless in Ray's arms.

"What's going on?" one of the twins appeared in the threshold.

"They're cloning her," Ray explained. "I met four."

"And you killed all of them or I only just had the pleasure?"

"I'm doing what you told me I should do..."

"We told you to find her," Francis stressed.

"And I haven't, so..."

"So you killed every copy?! They are alive too!"

"They have no feelings...!"

"I don't care! From now on, consider yourself out of this operation," he determined coldly.

Ray snorted. "You can be as lucky as you like kid, but there's no way in hell I'm gonna walk..."

Puff. Disappeared.

"Thanks George," Francis said as his sister walked past him in the hallway. "I really didn't want to hurt him."

"No problem," she said. "We're gonna have to change tactics and let things work themselves out. Involving him was a mistake."

He nodded. "C'mon. Let's let these aliens have it hard on Maxville."

* * *

His appearance was hardly noticed by the crowd in Sky High's gym. They were all too busy to realize there was now another men among them. After all, only few people knew who he was, but none of them was fit to approach him, so shocked they were the man they've been missed so many times, who they had seen last entering the enemy's ship, was now standing among them. In reach. No, there was no way they were going to run to him and try to render him to oblivion when they had failed before.

Except maybe Warren.

He practically run over every person who wasn't quick enough to move out of his way while he headed quickly to where the bleachers started and climbed up them till he reached Brandsen. "Back so soon?!"

He got one good punch at Ray's jaw and then took his chance while the other recovered and hit him hard on the ribs. Ray retaliated just as hard. Soon they were rolling down the bleachers, hearing the screams of the people on the gym. At last, Ray hit Warren on his left shoulder, the one he'd had on a sling months ago, and with the help of his powers, he broke Warren's tendon.

His cry of pain was heard over and over due to the echo on the gym. So great the pain was, he didn't notice rolling down the bleachers back to the ground, where his mother, father and friends were fussing around him. He struggled to open his lids and saw Brandsen cleaning his bloody nose and going down the bleachers.

"Are you Okay, son?" his father asked kneeling beside him.

He didn't even answered, just stood up and started to Ray. "What do you know about Regina?!"

"What?" Boomer asked coming up next to Warren.

"He was the one stalking Regina."

"You son of a bitch!"

Evelyn's scream was heard everywhere as Boomer attacked Ray, who, shockingly, didn't attack him back.

"Boomer, leave him alone," Wendy Boomowski stepped away from the crowd in her bright red Foster Prison jumpsuit.

Still under Boomer's grip, Ray nodded to Mindreign."Hello, mother."

* * *

"The reports we've been receiving from the active heroes tell us the aliens have in no way encouraged the government to approached them with a deal. Their powers seam to come from their rods, and they presume that, if taken away, the aliens would be much vulnerable."

Principal Powers told her speech from her usual podium, but this time it was directed to a larger crowd than she was used to. Everybody listened though, thinking hard to contribute. Plans were being set. Just because they had no powers didn't mean they were powerless. They were inside a school that had a lab with a secret room housing an arsenal. They had plenty of resources.

"Mr. Medulla and other teachers will be back shortly with the weapons. Please, those of you who are able and willing to retaliate, come meet me in the cafeteria. We will discuss our course of action there."

Warren removed his eyes from the principal and drew them back to Ray, who was sitting quietly next to Regina's mother

He and his parents had stuck near them, along with Boomer and Evelyn and Regina's friends, all in safe distance so mother and son wouldn't feel uncomfortable. But there was no way of getting a sensible word out of them about Regina. Mindreign had claimed he was innocent, while Ray didn't feel it necessary to give any explanation about anything.

"She never mentioned a brother."

They were walking down the hallways toward the gym, the place Principal Powers had appointed all those in favor of helping to meet, and Ray was a silent company, too silent for Warren's curiosity.

"Yeah, I don't think she would've," he finally said, having let a couple of minutes pass by.

Warren's pointedly stare and arched left brow was all Ray needed as a push to elaborate.

"I'm pretty sure my mother made her forget I even existed. I... run away when I was sixteen. I just couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't tolerate them."

"So you left your little sister in the hands of two sickos. Real brotherly thing to do," he snorted derogatorily.

Ray stopped in the middle of the hallway. "I don't have to explain myself to you."

"You're right," Warren stopped as well and crossed his arms in a deceptively calm way. "I bet your conscience is already too much to handle. Guilt, you know?."

"What guilt?" Ray gritted out.

"You left her alone, all alone. Every issued she ever had, she could've gotten over them having one member of her family with her. It's your fault she ended up the way she did."

"Like hell it is!"

"Well, you stalking her sure didn't help."

Ray inhaled sharply before replying, "You know, I keep trying to forget you... were _intimate_ with my sister, but you sure know how to dig a hole very deep for yourself."

"What can I say?" Warren retorted with his most wicked smirk. "I like to live dangerously."

"Really?" he snorted. "How's the arm?"

Warren was only take back for a moment. His arm, was, after all, in pain and had needed to be secured against his chest so it wouldn't move about and cause more pain. "Not nearly as bad as your conscience, I hope," he finally said.

They started walking again, Ray immersed in offended sulk, Warren hating the sight of the guy, and hating the fact that he still needed information from him.

"What were you doing on the space ship?"

Ray only nodded. "Looking for her."

"Wait," Warren stopped in the middle of the hallway again. "You were looking for her body? The one someone dug up?"

He smiled. "That body was a clone. Real Regina is under their custody."

Ray left Warren poleaxed in the spot, feeling a very odd pleasure in leaving him wordless.

"You mean she's alive?"

He delayed his answer as much as possible. "Probably."

"And Will Stronghold?" Warren run back to his side.

"Wasn't looking," Ray retorted carelessly.

Warren gritted his teeth furiously. "So you're un-brotherly _and_ un-herolike," Warren stressed.

"Sorry, kid. I haven't the conscience you heroes seem burdened with."

* * *

"Okay, so, the ships are total labyrinths, don't kid yourself with the shape they have on the outside, somehow they're spiral shaped in the inside. Oh, and they have DNA scans, so they'll know when you step one foot in one of them and then they'll retaliate," Ray explained ten minutes later to the party of a hundred former supers that had gotten together at the cafeteria.

"Did you have to fight them?" some middle aged woman in the front row asked.

"No, I had someone put down the sensors whenever I passed them."

Everybody started talking on the same time. It was deafening. "Can't this someone help us like he did you?" another asked, louder than the rest.

"I- I don't think he will..."

"Why not?!"

"Who the hell does he think he is?!"

"How did he do it?" Powers, one of the sanest one in the room, inquired.

"Well, he- ah," Ray gave a short bark of laughter. "He made me lucky."

They all gaped at him. "What?" came Warren's voice from the back.

"He has a very weird power. But like I said, he's not gonna help you, so you'd better be prepared to face one angry herd of all mighty aliens when you get to the ships."

"You're not coming?" asked a man wearing one of Foster Prison deep blue jumpsuit, his hands plasticuffed.

"Oh. I'm going, I'm just not going to help you people," Ray looked even surprised anybody was asking.

Warren's snort was heard loudly from the back.

"Another thing," he went on ignoring Warren completely. "The rods are not made of any kind of metal that can be found here on Earth. I'd give it a shot to freeze them or melt them, but you might want to get something real strong to blow them off, like a nuclear blaster," he suggested.

"On it," Medulla said from a corner where he was working on a few guns.

"And if you can get past their force field, physical combat is probably the best you can do."

"Alright, then now we shall..."

"I'm sorry," said Josie Stronghold from the back. she looked right to Ray. "Word has it someone told you your sister is alive... I was wondering..." she pleaded, her husband holding her hand tight. "...my son?"

He shook his head.

"Are you sure...?" Steve Stronghold asked this time.

"I wasn't interested in rescuing him when I went to that ship," Ray confessed plainly, with not a mince of guilt.

All those not wearing the Foster Prison jumpsuits gaped again.

"I'm not a hero. You can't expect me to think or act like you do," he explained. "I only cared about my sister; had I crossed your son on my way, I wouldn't have second guessed and walk away instantly."

"You son of a bitch...!"

Warren held Steve back.

"We were all looking for those kids!" another hero jumped in. "We didn't care Boomowski was the daughter of two villains. We were gonna save her too if we could! You should be ashamed of what you're saying!"

"Shame on you!" Ray shot back. "Half of you have families or loved ones you're currently leaving behind to go do your duty and save the world. They all play a second role in your lives, right after the citizens and the greater good, so don't come and lecture me now..."

"You're one to talk," Warren said harshly. "You walked away on your family too, and not to assure greater good. You're most selfish among us, admit it."

"I've a pressing urge to hit your other shoulder and make you symmetrical, Peace."

"Notice I haven't run for cover."

"Enough!" a villain shouted. "Kid's got a point," he pointed at Ray while he was talking to the rest of the audience. "But that don't mean he's right, right now," he glared back to Ray. "Sorry boy, but I ain't letting no alien take over my planet."

"Our planet," a hero corrected.

"Whatever, Fantastic Liver Freak."

"It's _Fantastic Lever Sheikh_," the hero corrected visibly irritated.

"Fantastic Liver Chic?" the villain shook his head. "I think Freak sound better. Ain't I right, guys?"

All the villains nodded and voiced their agreement.

"Okay," Powers cut in. "We need to focus. We know all there is to know, now we have to come up with a plan..."

Every hero wore their respective special garments, while the Foster villains and all the other supers who had offered to help were given with the mega expandable, all proof black jumpsuits and armors used in Camp. The utility belts were stuffed with several blasters and criss-crossed back-up grenade holders were distributed. Every person carried a heat and freezing ray, a nuclear blaster, fire-starter mini-bombs, electric shotguns, several kinds of explosives with different magnitude reach out, petrifying rods, stunning gas and other restraining devices.

"I hadn't felt so excited in years!" Barron Battle confessed as he cheerfully examined his entire arsenal.

"Just don't get too excited," his son advised before they left in mass to fight the aliens. "Remember you're vulnerable now."

"That's exactly what I was getting at!" Barron stressed and shoved Warren's hand to feel his heart. "Can you feel it beating?"

"Yeah," Warren nodded. "Keep it that way."

"Aren't you excited too? They might still be alive..."

"They may not..."

"I can't believe my but fitted in my old suit!" Melanie commented as she approached her son. Wearing her flaming red and white old jumpsuit and golden cape. Mrs. Hellfire in the flesh. "After all these years... Oh," she noticed Barron was there and pursed her lips. "You're here. Yay."

"Yay to you too," Barron smiled. "Your but looks very cute, by the way."

Melanie inhaled sharply. "I'll stick with the Strongholds," she told Warren. "Can I ask you one more time to stay...?"

"You can ask, but I won't follow."

"Right," she smiled sweetly. After all, she didn't expect nothing less from Warren. "Keep in touch," she kissed him good-by, completely ignoring Barron's grin.

"Where's my kiss?" he demanded as she walked away.

She answered without turning back. "Talk to your lawyer, Barron. Maybe he can explain you the concept of divorce."

Most heroes who owned ships had taken them along to Sky High, and as it was stipulated any kind of flying transportation which were to carry a super should be, in the sake of keeping citizens peace of mind, able to turn invisible. So the ships, along with the flying bussed, left the school cramped up with people ready to fight. The trip downtown was highly uneventful –only one ship was close to crash with one of the aliens's. Their first target was the ship that had landed and was now swamped in the pavement, this being the only one they could boar. Once they took over that ship and found some more about how they worked, they'd try to board the rest.

Downtown Maxville looked like all hell had broken lose. As Josie Stronghold flew their ship over the scene he looked out from the window, trying to find some trace of the four supers with weird eyes. He had the suspicion the "friend" Ray Brandsen or whatever his name was had mentioned was one of them, since they'd protected him earlier. He was, however, more interested in knowing what had Ray done to get on their collective bad grace.

But they were gone, and only a bunch of active heroes were fighting the aliens off, and hardly succeeding. The heroes had psychic powers or could control molecules out of self, which seamed to be only kind of powers that remained actives. The aliens, on he other hand, were apparently all mighty, or at least their rods were. Ray was right on that point, no matter how much Ray hated to admit it. Parted with the rods, the aliens should be vulnerable enough.

The first set of heroes joined the ones already fighting, who were visibly thankful someone had showed up. Shotguns and blasters were aimed and shot against the aliens, but they had their force field protecting them. Medulla, however, had considered that possibility and hed dug up an old science project –he confessed it being Gwen Grayson's creation-, a devise similar to the one she'd used to shot down Sky High's gravity sensors, except this one produced a very particular frequency of magnetic energy which would in theory put down other energy related devises in 100 yards radium. Like a force field. It had only been used in Maxville once, as a demonstration and the school's field had indeed disappeared while the devise was on. It was the same this time.

The aliens didn't know what hit them, all of the sudden they were under attack and actually getting some damage on their part. Two more corps joined the fight and in few minutes they rendered them unconcious, with very little cassualties on the heroes side and before all the other ships had got to the scene.

Melanie Peace received them when they left the ship. "That was easy enough, a group has already got inside the ship."

"Brandsen?"

She snorted. "He run over there as soon as the field was down. Boomer followed after neutralizing a few of them."

"Let's go," leaded by The Commander and Jetstream, the headed in all haste to the insides of the ship.

It was now as crowded as Sky High had been that day, heroes going from one place to the other, aliens stunned and tied away. They had previously marked the way to the control room, so they wouldn't wonder around the labyrinth like halls and waste precious time.

Medulla was sitting in front of the central panel, which displayed several buttons and symbols in alien language.

"Are you getting anything?" Jetstream asked as she approached them.

"Yes," he answered in his sing sang voice. "Apparently this is only a small reconnaissance ship, the larger ones must be the ones still on the sky."

"How'd you get that?"

"See this symbols?" he pointed at a carved inscription on the top of the control panel. "I think the first three is the name of the mother ship and the two following the serial number of this ship."

"Huh?" Steve, Josie, Melanie and Barron asked.

"The later two appear repeatedly," Warren, explained. "Check the ID scans on the doors, they're carved there too. And these buttons," he signed a section of the panel protected by thin glass. "The two symbols are caver in them too, but followed by another. I bet they name their arsenal."

"I though you lost your powers?" his mother said in awe.

"I did, but after so long you learn to pick a thing or two about how most languages work," Warren shrugged.

A loud crash came from the other side of the command room. New aliens had appeared, only two of them, and were attacking, more like defending themselves from the heroes attack. Moments later, they were lying unconscious.

"I sware I didn't touch a thing!" Kyle cried, his hands shot up. "They just... appeared."

"Magnificent!" Medulla determined, a dreamy expression as he crossed the room and beheld a portion of the wall, framed with something similar to onyx and with a screen on the middle and two large black buttons on each side. The floor was watery gray and was frame also by the onyx-like stone."They have developed a teleporting machine!"

"It kinda looks like a shower," Steve observed.

"I believe the screen shows which ship the aliens came from," Medulla went on and Warren nodded.

"Yeah, it has the three symbol prefix of the mothership. It's probably the only way they have to go from one ship to the other."

"So, we could use this to attack the other ships from the inside?" the Fantastic Lever Sheikh asked.

Medulla touched the creen and a list of symbols appeared, assumably, the other ships' codes, selecting the first and then the black button on the right lit in blue light.

"I don't know if it works on humans, though..."

"Try it on me," Brandsen steped out of the crowd. "If something happens, I can rearrange my molecules."

"Nothing's happening," he said a while later, after he'd pressed the lighted black button and the one alike –which a turned up after the other one- and been standing on the centre of the onyx semicircle for five whole minutes.

"Move aside," Warren said and started to the semicircle. "You must've touched the screen or someth..."

They were vanished by the time his second foot touched the inside of the semicircle.

"Of course!" Medulla exclaimed after seconds of utter silence. "It works with pairs! Why didn't _I_ think of that before?"

"Where did you sent them?" Melina and Barron asked at once.

"The mothership."

* * *

"Gettofme!" thy both demanded on accord.

Finally, after struggling pointlessly, they both pushed aside and stood up.

"You just had to get in the machine, didn't you?" Ray spitted.

"I made it work. Go see if there's any alien around or something," Warren barked as he shoved his unit out of his utility belt.

"I don't take orders from you."

"Fine, consider it your idea. I won't tell."

He stepped out of the onyx circle and inspected the windowed wall, viewing the outer space and a far vision of Earth.

"I don't know if you can hear me but we landed Ok," he said into his unit. "Except jerkbut being a jerkbut, of course. And the fact this freaking ship is in outer space."

"Copied. Wait there for reinforcements," his father's voice replied.

"You can wait here for reinforcements," Ray snorted and headed to the door, which was in fact only a threshold. "I'm going to find my sister."

"We're gonna do some reconnaissance around here," he said after Ray left him.

"Warren," now his mother was on the line. "Wait for us there!"

"Sorry, can't copy," he lied and crossed the door to the hallway.

As he left, the lights of that room turned off, the light of the stars and the Earth the only thing that drew life to the darkened room. A quick glance about the hallway and he saw a line of similar thresholds, no actual doors, all rooms dark. Except for one dawn the hall. A strange beaming came from there, like a lava lamp.

On the other side of the hall there was a door with an ID scan on the side. Back in the swamped ship, they hadn't had trouble with those scans, since Ray had opened all the doors for them, but now the bastard hadn't. He had knowingly locked Warren in that part of the ship.

Cursing under his breath, Warren considered his option. He could A: use one of his pretty blasters and blow up the door, hence alarming the crew of his presence if they didn't already know that, or B: search that part of the ship first, maybe even find and alien he could stick to the scan and open the door.

Option B won for its obvious utility. If he didn't succeed, he could always go back to plan A.

The first room her walked in was similar to a human OR, with an egg shaped tray in the middle of able to fit a very large man, instruments displayed in the walls behind glass which really wasn't glass, but some sort of plasma concentration which would open for him to grab an instrument. It didn't have any windows, but it was so bright it hurt his eyes. He couldn't detect any light bulb though; the light just came from the room itself.

That room gave him the creeps, so he inspect it quickly and strode to the next one.

The four following rooms were similar to that one, one with a bigger worktable and larger and scarier instruments, other with several counters against the walls and what seamed to be plants on exposition behind the plasma glass and the last with endless lines of tubes containing substances unknown to him. Some even had things floating inside of them. He didn't stay in that one much either.

After inspecting a room which sole purpose was to host a DNA scan, Warren passed on to the one that had the lava lamp light coming out of it. He could see where it came from as he walked closer. It was in fact, very similar to a lava lamp, only there were two of them and were considerably large –about eight feet tall. The light didn0t turned on when he walked in, the room remained dim, only the huge containers were lighting it.

Because they had lighted as he entered, with the light coming from behind them or so it seamed, making them the object of interest, the main character of the room. The containers, and the two people floating inside them.

Warren just stopped himself before crying. There was no need to. He had already lost them, had gotten used to them being dead for three weeks now, so he shouldn't be sad or shocked to see them... But he was.

They were almost naked, wearing way too short and tight shorts and, in Regina's case, some sort of tight sports bra, both floating in green water with the white light coming up behind them, each one in their own container. Will's hair shot up in all different directions, moving slightly as he floated lifelessly. Regina's, on the other hand, was gloriously loose reaching her waist and covering everything around her, like a mermaid, moving about, tangling around the tube...

There was a tube. A _tube_ stuck into her mouth and probably reaching down her throat. Why would there be a tube on her throat?

Will had one too. And both tubes connected to the top of the container, which was on time connected to a screen with the same alien symbols, but also with what seamed to be a four dimension image of a beating heart. Will's.

He looked on Regina's side and found the same screen with the image of another beating heart.

They were alive. His best friend and his... _Regina_ were alive! They were floating unconscious in two tanks, but still! He had to get them out of there.

Warren took two of his explosives, making sure of setting the magnitude reach to a relatively low ebb, so he wouldn't hurt them or alert the aliens. All he was trying to do for the moment was get the green water out of the tanks and see if Will and Regina regained conscience.

He stepped away before the mini bombs exploded, hoping they weren't too loud and on the same time wanting to rip the containers apart with his bare hands. They were alive, and he was seconds away to know that for sure...

The explosions weren't too loud and they served their porpose, opening a crack in the base so the water would flow away. As the water descended, Will and Regina did too, until they ended up siting on the floor of their respective tanks.

Will was the first to wake up, opening his eyes and shoving one hand to his throat, visibly confused. Warren knocked on the glass and his friend looked up. He looked like he would smile if he hadn't had a tube on the way.

Sensing the length of the tube, he started to remove it slowly, inch by inch, coughing all the way down till it was out and he could breath on his own. "About time you came find us," was the first he said in an un-characteristic husky voice.

"I took a little detour," Warren replied, moisture in his eyes he refused to acknowledge. "Hold on, I'll find something to get you out of there..."

"It's Ok, I can do it," Will stood up and punched the glass, which shattered in little pieces, and stepped out of the tank. "Oh, boy, this is so gay," he said, looking down on his super tight and super short sorts.

"Yeah, lets correct that, please," Warren begged.

"I'll check in the other room," he said as he hurried past a door frame Warren hadn't noticed before, leading to a more private room.

Warren walked to Regina's tank and knocked. She wasn't awake.

"Our clothes are here!" Will called from next door. "It figures... Last thing I remember is they taking my clothes off over here. Looks like they'd been studying it... I'll take Reggie's stuff too..."

"She's not awake yet," Warren informed him.

He started taking her tube off her throat, but stop almost immediately, being paralyzed by the fear of hurting her. The other end of the tube, though, the one connected to the tank and which followed to the machine, he wasn't afraid to unattach.

"Warren, don't!"

But it was too late. By the time Will went back in the room and warned him, Warren already had the other end on the tube on his hands, free from the machine.

"What? Why?" he asked his friend, fear rushing yet again.

"Ah..." Will knelt next to a still unconscious Regina. "I don't know how they did it... We tried to scape, Ok? But they caught us, me first. and Reggie... man, she wouldn't quit! She kept fighting them off!"

"Alone?!"

"Yes, and I told her over and over to stop cuz they were going to hurt her, but..." Will shook his head. "She doesn't respond to voice commands!"

"Will, focus! What happened?" as they spoke, Regina got paler and paler.

"They pointed their rods at her and she just stopped...living," at those words, Warren's world went back to darkness. "They rushed her to that tank and they saved her, but I don't know if she doesn't need that tube to, you know, breath."

Her chest was going up and down, but the movement was too slow, too relaxed, each one far apart from the next, and she still she was unconscious. And pale.

Will took the tube fron Warren's hand and shortened it considerably, only ten inches were left. Then he handed it back to Warren, who took it withn o hesitation, shove it to his mouth and released a deep breath into it.

Her chest went up and then down. A few breaths later and her pulse was normal and she regained some more color.

"We have to get her to a hospital, man."

Warren shook his head.

"Okay, you may be scared, I get it, I'd be too if that were Layla, but..."Warren handed him the end of the tube. "You want me to breathe?"

"First of all, we can't take her to a hospital because, A: we're in outer space, B: all hospitals are swamped with injured people cuz the aliens are attacking the Earth, and C: there's someone on this ship, somewhere around and he's a healer. He'll help her," Warren explained hurriedly as he got up and tried to bring Regina with him. Hard thing to do when he only had one good arm.

"I'll carry her," Will said in between breaths, noticing his arm. "I'll keep her breathing too so you can tell me what the hell is going on."

He started telling him, but he had to stop when Will had to break the door that Ray had previously locked, leaving Warren restricted to only that part of the ship. He couldn't keep on telling him what had happened though, since behind that door no qualm expected them.

Ray had obviously been busy.

* * *

**Another cliffhanger! I'm getting kinda addicted to them...**

**please review!  
**


	22. War and Peace, Part 2

**Hey, guys. it didn't take take longer, as you see! apparently the universe doesn't want to keep you in suspense...**

Chapter twenty two: War and Peace, Part 2.

"I can't find them."

"Who?"

Mason glared back at his twin. "Osama Bin Laden. Who would I be trying to find?!"

"Woa, easy. I just walked in."

"He's been like that since we got back from downtown," George shook her head. "I told him to stop worrying. We got them all together in the ship, that's what we needed, right?"

"Considering the last couple of months we can't take anything for granted," Frannie sat next to his twin. "Lets try together."

Both their eyes were cloudy white, unfocused.

"Got them," he singsanged. "Ooh, that looks nasty."

"Doc's a butcher!" Mason added.

"Yeah, and Ember is going to kill him sooner or later," the other shook his head. "That can't be good."

"What's going on? Is Doxy Okay?" Georgina jumped in.

"She's unconscious," the twins said at once. "Stronghold is carrying her... What happened to Ember's arm?" Mason went on.

"What are they doing?" Owen walked in.

"Seeing what's going on with Doxy and Ember," George explained.

He sat next to her. "And?"

* * *

"You were given with restraining cuffs and stunning weapons. Why, oh why, did you have to kill them all?!"

"They are the enemy."

"You're too, but you don't see me roasting you alive, do you?"

The moment they walked through the previously locked door, pandemonium confronted them. Aliens were running all over the place, pointing their rods at Ray, who on time either fired them with one of his several blasters or used his own powers to make them drop dead. Of course, Warren and Will didn't notice that at once and joined the fight, Warren from behind a door where he kept Regina safe and breathing and shooting the aliens, though only to neutralize, not kill. Never kill. Only when things got quieter they saw what Ray had been doing.

"Like I said before," Ray replied irritated. "I'm not a hero..."

"So you can't be trusted, yeah, we get that," Warren barked. "Come and help Regina."

"What's wrong with her?"

Will explained him all about their unfulfilled attempt to scape. He didn't trust Ray, though, especially after what he'd just seen.

"Are you sure this guy'll help her? He seams a little... _off_."

"Tell me about it," he snorted, watching as Ray knelt next to Regina's unconscious body and put his hand on her chest. "He'll help her. He's her... _brother_," he spitted out.

Will's shock face was priceless.

But not as much as the sound of Regina's coughing and her growling.

Warren rushed to her side and fell on his knees.

"Aaah, I hate life," she declared to no one in particular, her eyes still shut.

"Reg?" Warren shook her gently.

Her eyes flared open. "Warren! I- uh- Hi."

"Hi."

"Hi," Ray cut in. "Can we get out of here?"

Regina stared back at him as she sat up with Warren's help. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"It can wait," Ray looked at Warren. "No reinforcements?"

"I didn't wait, but they didn't come either."

"Well, didn't you at least try to contact them?" he went on annoyingly.

"We've been busy," Will cut in impatiently. "Why don't we- you know- go and contact someone?" he suggested, rolling his eyebrows to the other end of the room. Reluctantly, Ray followed.

"We have to talk," Regina blurted out as soon as they were alone.

"It can wait," Warren quoted her brother.

"It really really can't," she insisted. God, he'd missed that.

"Regina, aliens are attacking Earth, we're on outer space and we need to get out of here," he stressed. "_Anything_ can wait."

"Fine," she stood up, ad suddenly realised she was more bare than covered. Her face –and down her throat and chest, for that matter- turned a very bright and flaring shade of red. "I'm gonna need something to throw on..."

Warren hurried to the door and got back to her with her shoes and blue dress.

"I'm never wearing those shoes again," she refused them as she stepped in the dress and turned her back for him to help her with the zip. "They are torture machines. I'm suing Jimmy Choo."

Whatever comment she had planned next, she had to replace it with a gasp, produced by Warren's slight thouch across her spine as he zipped her up, slowly. He even traced the line with his fingers after the job was done. Shivers down her spine and all the way down to her toes, she turned and faced his chocolate stare.

"When this is over," he started huskily, his breath touching her lips. "I'm going to rip this dress from you."

"Okay," she managed to say right before he kissed her, hard, possessively.

Someone cleared his throat rather loudly near to them. Warren and Regina ignored him and only parted when they needed to breathe. Only then Warren glared back at Ray.

"You were saying?" he barked.

"No one's responding my calls," he gritted out. "We should get the hell away from here before more aliens come."

"Oh, you mean you didn't kill them all?" he said ironically letting go his grasp on Regina's waist.

"I killed them as they came," Ray shrugged. "Can't know for sure there aren't more on other parts of the ship."

"Right," Regina nodded warily, using the tone of voice you'd use while talking with a mentally unstable person. "Actually, I don't think we should go yet."

"I wasn't asking for your consent."

"Fine. Then you go and we'll stay," she dismissed Ray.

"No."

"No?" Regina laughed. Who did he think he was?

"Why do you think we should stay?" Warren cut in before any of them exploded.

"It's all part of my theory. Right, Will?"

"Oh, yeah," he growled. "I've heard nothing but all about her _theory_ lately."

"For the past few months," she started. "Heroes have been losing powers. It's not common knowledge yet..."

"You've been up here for over three weeks," Warren let out. "Most powers have been drained..."

"But how... I mean. It doesn't seam so long..."

"We were in suspended animation after we tried to break out," Will informed her.

"You tried to scape?" Ray asked irritably.

"Sure," she barely spared a glance for him. "Anyway, as I was trying to say before: the aliens are responsible for the power loss!"

"There she goes,"Will said under his breath.

"The aliens DNA is different to ours, so they can't develop things like vocal language or hearing or, more to the point , powers. How do I know this? Because I'm a geek, and I read once about the alien –human cemit in '73, and these aliens are the same species."

"And they came back to steal our powers? And managed to get unnoticed till their grand entrance?" Warren pointed out.

"Ok, Mr. Skepticism, I've had enough with your super dooper buddy over there, so zip it while I'm talking."

Ray's grin lighted the whole command room.

"I think they're intrigued as to how we can develop powers and they can't, so they came up with some sort of agent that would isolate the super gene and they could take it away. But," she added before she was interrupted. "They weren't counting on our immune system because they don't have one. That's why they look so sick and have sores all over them. The immune system basically kicked their asses off, rejected the agent and cocooned the gene to protect it. _That's_ why powers were lost!"

"Then how come they have powers?"

"They come from their rods, Peace," Ray cut impatiently.

"The aliens did manage to copy them, though," Regina went on. "They must be stuffed away in a matrix or something, connected by some sort of satellite signal to the rods."

"So, we can't use our powers, but we still have them?"

"Yes," she smiled brightly. "But, to avoid being conquered by aliens, we have to destroy the matrix and make them vulnerable."

"We don't even know if it's here," Will reminded her.

"That's because we haven't searched the whole place!"

"Last time we tried we ended up in suspended animation!"

"But we're four now! You and I have powers, and Warren and Dr. Brandsen are armed, so..."

Ray wasn't interested in hearing another word. He was the one nearest to Regina anyway, so he just grabbed her by surprise and slumped her over his shoulder like she was a sack of potatoes or something of the kind. The sudden crash between her stomach and his shoulder shut her up for a moment, as well as left her breathless.. then, along Warren and Will, she started screaming.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" she cried. As a way to top the situation, she had no idea where he was runing toward, since she was facing his back and her loosen, wet hair wouldn't let her see a thing.

She did, however, hear the other's cursing and coming to rescue her.

"BRANDSEN, PUT HER DOWN!" Warren barked behind them.

Ray turned around and did something Regina couldn't see, but involved a brisk movement from his part. Instantly, she heard a crashing and Warren and Will crying.

"Warren?!" She struggled to get away of Ray's grasp. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"I'm taking you somewhere safe," Ray explained mildly.

"Newsflash, Doc, you're not my knight in shinny armor!"

Regina felt him inhale sharply. "From now on, in all matters that concern you, if the freaking shoe fits I'll wear it till I say so."

"Really?" he should've sensed the change in her tone and take precaution. Luckily for Regina, he didn't know her that well. "You're gonna put me down. Gently. And you won't open your mouth from now on unless I say so. Understood?"

He put her down, alright, but the look on his face was as close as you could get to murder without actually committing it. Regina smiled an evil smile and turned to see what had happened to Warren and Will.

Ray had taken her to a part of the ship she hadn't seen before, a hallway with a line of similar thresholds on either side, all rooms darkened. The only light was that of the hallway itself and another one, a more weird one, coming from a room down the hall. The command room they'd been talking at was just across a shattered threshold with an equally shattered DNA scan on the side.

Warren was sitting on the floor near the door. His arm, the one already handicaped, was bloody, like a furious dog had attacked it. Will was seeing to him, trying to make a torniquet with a piece of his shirt, causing Warren even more pain if possible.

"Are you Okay?" she rushed and knelt in front of him.

"I don't know how he did it... Brandsen had no knife..." Will shook his head.

"He can control the molecules of the human body, in the medical way," Warren explained, glaring at his attacker with fire in his eyes. "This isn't the first time he's used his powers on me," Ray, leaning boringly on the threshold, snorted derogatorily. "I swear, as soon as I get my powers back, I'm going to torch him."

"Let me see," Regina leaned over and inspected the wounds. Even to her, a complete ignorant in first aids, was clear enough that the damage was profound. Fire appeared on her eyes as well. "Tell me truth," she told Ray. "Can you heal?"

"Yes," he answered grudgingly.

"Then fix him," she commanded coldly.

* * *

"Owen!" George called out in the room.

"_What?"_ came from the bathroom.

She walked there briskly. "Are you gonna be there long?"

She could practically see him rolling his eyes and inhaling in frustration. _"I really can't say, George. I'm kinda busy."_

"Okay," she settled on the floor, next to the door. "I got a little concern," she started. "It's about Ray..."

"_George..."_ Owen said warningly.

"Right. Sorry. _Doc_. I'm concerned about _Doc_," she rectified her words. "We should do something about him. I know we told him to keep his mouth shut, and he has so far, but I think that's mostly because he doesn't want to acknowledge the possibility of the thing we told him actually happening. Are you following?"

"_Every word,"_ he growled.

"So, you know, we should take precautions," George waited for his view on that point. What she was offering him, after all, had never been done by any of them and involved serious risks. "Owen?"

"_What did Frannie and Mason say?"_

"I didn't... I wanted you to know first."

"_Good. George?"_

"Yeah?"

"_Are you sure about this?" _

She only hesitated for a moment. "I can do it."

"_Then don't tell the twins and just do it,"_ George smiled brightly and stood up. "And George?" she turned as he walked out of the bathroom. "Don't screw up. Mom wouldn't allow it."

"Yeah... Tell me about it," she looked down.

"Precisely my point," Owen smiled. "Now, go and get some food when you get back," he half hugged her. "Frannie and Mason will be pissed, so that should calm them."

* * *

"I mean, who does this guy think he is?" Regina whispered next to Warren, pretending to inspect the control panel. "He shows up, suddenly he's got powers and I'm his property? He's a sicko!"

Warren bit his tonge. He was actually inspecting the controls to find the matrix, unlike his partner at crime.

"I don't like him," she shook his head. "He's creepy. I mean, sure, he healed me a few times and I'd be crippled if he hadn't, but he has no right treating me like this! He tried to kidnap me!"

"The sooner we find the matrix we can go and get away from him, so why don't we focus...?"

"You know what?" she went on and on, not listening to him. "There's something about his eyes... I'm not sure but... don't they look a lot like that guy's, the one who watched us that night?"

Bringing _that_ night into topic was one hellish risk, since they hadn't worked things out yet. But Regina, being uncharacteristically unreserved, wasn't going to keep anything to herself. Especially if Brandsen really was the creep.

"Regina, this can wait," he told her for the fourth time.

"You keep saying that, but on the mean time I'm getting all freaked out about that guy!"

"Well, don't! He's not gonna hurt you."

She narrowed her silver eyes. "What do you know?"

"Like I'm telling you when I keep repeating it can wait," Warren snorted.

Regina tried to hid her grin. Fortunately for her, he was busy trying to make sense out of the alien symbols on the controls. "Find anything?"

Warren all but raised his hands to the skies and thanked for the change of subject. He settled for a sigh. "The rods we collected from the aliens have no symbols, so I can't really say... And I really don't think they'd keep the matrix connected to their controls."

"Then why are you working on them when we could be searching somewhere else?" Regina asked irritably.

"You dragged me here," he stressed. "You told me, and I quote, _pretend to inspect the controls so we can talk_. I told you it could wait, you puckered, and then you started ranting about Brandsen."

"Oh, yeah," she frowned. "I need food, my brain isn't working well."

"I still can't make the teleporter machine work," Ray said as he walked in the command room. "Stronghold's not back yet?"

"No, I'm actually hiding him under my skirt because I like to tease you," Regina replied ironically.

"You're not funny."

"Neither are you, but you don't hear me pointing it out. That'd be rude."

Ray gritted his teeth. "There's a DNA scan on the room next to the teleporting machine," he told Warren. "But I'm sure it's not like the ID locks we've seen before. Could that be the matrix?"

He on time looked questionably at Regina. "Could it...?"

"We'd have to check it," she smiled falsely at Ray. "Thank you _soo_ much for contributing."

The DNA scan was as communicative as the controls had been. Warren tried and tried, tipping every icon the plasma screen had and getting more and more cryptic symbols with no apparent meaning whatsoever, all in between two bickering siblings who, even though one of them didn't know the other was a sibling, still managed to bring him and Warren to unheard of irritation levels. Luckily, Will showed up for his recon mission soon afterwards, with nothing interesting to report, and saved Warren from losing it.

"Looks like you're useless without your powers, Peace."

"You're useless all the way around," Regina snorted. "I don't see any redeeming point you can be clinging to..."

"They've like that since I left?" Will whispered next to his friend, who only grunted in response. "Wanna bet who's Cain and who's Able?"

"Yeah, cuz a biblical disaster is _just_ what we could use right now," Warren resisted the urge to kick the frigging scan.

"Hey, Reggie," Will called, suddenly illuminated. "If you commanded Warren to use his powers, would the cocoon thingy break?"

Silence settled. "Could be possible," she narrowed her eyes.

"You're not trying," Warren stated.

"Why not?"

Up went his left brow. "Need I remind you what happened last time you used your powers on other people? No way in Hell I'm letting you make me sing again."

"What're you talking about, dude, the musical was fun!" Will cut in. "Embarrassing, yeah, but at the end of the day..." Warren's flaring glare stopped him in the middle of his speech. "Sure, I'll shut up."

"That was an accident," Regina reminded him, and herself. It wouldn't happen again.

Couldn't happen again.

"Have you practiced ever since?"

"Yeah, sure," she shrugged. Warren's other brow joined the left one up in his forehead. "I haven't tried it on large groups, but I'm back to basics, you know, one on one sort of thing. And here you are, individual," she went on. "And frankly a rather simple one."

Ray's laughter burst out. Will had to kick him into shutting the hell up.

* * *

She didn't know why her head hurt so much. Like she'd been severely beaten from behind, which was odd since she didn't remember being beaten... What what did she really remember...? All those blurry, loud memories which burst into her mind, were they all real? Had they actually taken place? They were too surrealistic... and none of them seamed to explain why she was laying on her stomach in the cold floor, unable of moving, unable to even try and see if she could, her head pounding, her mouth dry, feeling tired, and sick, and hungry...

And miserable.

That was the first memory -out of those she wasn't sure were in fact memories or just the product of her imagination gone wild- that she could place in a time line and know it had happened. It was the night of Megan's party and she'd decided to go to Warren's and apologize for being an idiot. Because she'd realized, finally, what he'd been trying to tell her for so long. She didn't need to be afraid because he wasn't going to walk away from her. He only had when she'd wanted him to, because she hadn't understood what was going on, how much more closer they could get from what they already were, and she'd freaked out and pushed him away.

So that night, Regina had decided to pull him back to her, whatever means necessary. But for some reason, Will Stronghold had landed in front of her in the street, followed by a party of four sick-looking aliens, with open sores on their white skin and creepy eyes, pointing their metallic rod at him and attacking with fire and ice, electricity and water, all

on the same time. She remembered getting out of the car and confronting the aliens by Will's side, even though he was holding his own pretty well. Together they fought, and the aliens weren't mighty at all. Less than five minutes later two of them were lying in the ground, unconscious, and the other two only had time to try and divert Regina's and Will's attacks. Finally, they overpowered the aliens and hence won the fight.

Bad thing was, right in between compliments from both sides, something had like pulled them up and they were leaving solid ground on a very fast and unnerving fashion. And she'd thought jumping off an helicopter was frightning? Well, getting pulled by and invisible force up in the sky, turning over yourself all the way up, afraid to close your eyes but also scared the shit of of her by the sight of the dark sky and the city with the blinding lights, mixing up, over and over...

After that, memories got messy again. The next coherent memory was of her and Will waking up inside a dark room, so dark you couldn't tell were you were standing, less so were the walls actually were, how confined they really had gotten. She remembered Will being a very soothing and optimistic company, never losing faith about people coming to rescue them, wherever the hell was it they were at. Regina had had a nervous break down, and cried and cried in Will shoulder till she fell asleep and knew no more.

Regina honestly couldn't say how had they been in the dark room; it could've been days or hours, she didn't care. That room was Hell. All the insecurities she'd ever had, about herself, her parents and Warren, had taken over her during their time in the dark room. Will had tried to help her –after all, all they had left was each other-, but he had his own ghosts to face.

And then there was light. Blinding, annoying, and hurting after so long in the dark, but hey, who was she kidding? Neither of them were no longer in the position to demand. They'd became prisoners, flesh and bone, no soul. The captors had made that clear. As clear as Regina's memories of the examinations, of the cold, claw-like alien hands that held her powerless body, drew her dress and shoes off her and tie her to a table, the blinding light surrounding her, not letting her focus the aliens as they poked and probed, pinching her wih medical tools she'd never before seen and were truthfully the object of nightmares. Her mind said stop, but her body wouldn't respond to her command. She wasn't even allowed to scream when sharp pain flashed through her sore body. At some time she'd dozed off, and remained blissfully unaware of what had been done to her.

Will told her the same had happened to him, later, when they were back in the room, both wearing asceptic scrubs of sorts. It wasn't dark anymore, nor blindingly bright, just ligheted enough and adjusted to their vision. They were fed, if the dry, brown colored chunks could be called food. But they did the trick; after swallowing their fare meal, hunger had abandomed them.

Again, it had been impossible for them to tell how much time they had spent alone in confinement, but not being buried by oppressing darkness helped to keep them calmed. They talked, a lot, about all sorts of stuff, like friends and life and couples. Regina'd ended up telling him about her and Warren and expected to see shock in her partners face.

"You thought we didn't know?" he laughed. "Have you any idea how Warren gets when he's not with you? These past few months have been the coolest I've ever seen him," he confessed. "He even stopped scaring Ethan into melting away."

One day, one of the aliens came to them in their room, carrying a plasma screen, extremely thin and apparently feather light. The alien handed it to Regina and words appeared on it.

**Why have you not mated?**

Regina really really hoped that had been a linguistic error.

"I'm sorry? What exactly do you mean by _mate_?"

New words appeared. **Why have you not copulated?**

"We're not going to do... that!" Will retorted, ugly red color flaring up his cheeks.

**We need you to breed.**

"WHAT?!" they cried at once.

**For research purposes.**

The alien had to walk away in haste after Regina threw the plasma screen at it, hitting on its tiny head.

Then the theory had been born. And chewed and commented over and over and over again. Will was in favor of Regina shutting up, and Regina wanted to break out of their confinement, find the matrix and go home. She wasn't even willing to hear how bad her plan was.

When their meal came next, they run past the alien who carried it and fought their way through the ship. She remembered that much. Then Will had been caught and the aliens were all over her... she wasn't sure what had happened after that...

Oh, right. Will had told her they'd been in suspended animation for few weeks... Warren had rescued them...

Yes! Her immediate memory was kicking in! There was Warren, who wouldn't let her talk about them, and Dr. Brandsen, who was being an ass, and they had found the matrix. It was the DNA scan in the room next to the teleporting machine. At first they hadn't known how to make it work or even if it really was the scan, so Regina, urged by Will, commanded Warren to power up so he could decode the alien symbols. It had worked and they'd destroyed the matrix in a mater of minutes. Then they'd headed to the teleporting machine and, in pairs, they'd left the ship. First Will and Warren, on Ray's irritating insistence of escorting her down to Earth. And then...

She'd woken up, laying in the cold, hard floor, the back of her neck ponding into her brain, not knowing what had happened.

So...

What _had_ happened?

Growling, she tried to sit, or at least move a bit so her mouth wasn't in contact with the floor. There was one problem though, one which was noticed right away. Her movements were restrained, as in her hands were tied together on her back. breaking free was probably not possible and Regina was nowhere near trying, as weak and dizzy as she still felt.

"Stay still, darling," she heard a woman's voice coming from her left. "You wouldn't want to get a bigger headache."

Under heavy lids, Regina stared up at her mother, sitting next to her, no restrain whatsoever.

"Aaarrghhh," she growled as she sat up. "Who hit me?"

"Boris, the ass," Mindreign snorted. "I told him specifically not to hurt you, but would he listen?"

"What...?" Regina looked around.

And gaped.

It was a large crowd gathered in the street. A part was wearing superhero and sidekick garment and the other, the larger part, those incredibly comfortable jumpsuits all the Sky High students had been given at camp. Now, half the people were tied away and Regina guessed they were hero inclined ones, since her mother and other villains she could recognize were free and going about their prisoners, mocking them and getting violent occasionally.

"What happened?" Regina stared back at her mother.

"We rebelled after we took the aliens down," she explained mildly. Her words said nothing, her eyes... Regina'd never seen her like that, so in touch with a feeling she didn't know. Mindreign smiled. "I'm so happy you're back," and she hugged her.

_Hugged_. As in held her tight against her chest and wouldn't let go.

"Okay," Regina said carefully. What the hell was going on? Her cold unattached mother was getting emotional? Was that even possible? But more importantly, what should Regina do? Held her back, as hard that may be because she was tied up, and pretend it was alright when things between them had never been just because Mindreign had developed motherly feelings? At last, her brutal honesty kicked in. "Why are you hugging me?"

Mindreign broke the embrace, a frown darkening her before happy face. "I know I'm not the warmest mother of all, but you can't expect me not to feel happy after finding out my daughter isn't dead."

"Whoa, whoa, dead?! Who said I was dead?"

Her mother narrowed her eyes. "They didn't tell you?" she nodded to where Warren and Will were laying, both unconscious.

Before she could answer in the negative, her mother went on. "You went missing, and you couldn't be found. After a week your body and Stronghold's appeared floating in the river."

Regina opened her mouth, but no sound would come out.

"Now we know they were just clones... Apparently the aliens were experimenting... But you died," Mindreign breathed out. "You had a funeral... To all of us, you were gone. And when I was told..." she caressed her daughter's cheek, something she hadn't done since Regina was a baby. "I realised I'd never had you. I realised you and I were strangers..." tears forming in her eyes, she wiped them with her sleeve. "I realised in your last moments you wouldn't think of me because I never let you love me!"

"Mom..."

"And I'm so sorry because I do love you! You're my daughter..."

She buried her face into Regina's chest, which was pounding as if she'd run a marathon. But that was only after it had skipped several beat during her mother's confession. Knowing she'd been dead to the world was shocking, yes, but not nearly as mindbogglingly as her mother crying so sorrowly about it. She'd been grieving for the past weeks, they all had: Boom, Evelyn, Warren... But they weren't sobbing on her shoulder right now, nor saying they loved her and they were sorry. Her mother, Wendy Bad-ass Boomowski was crying her heart out and feeling as bad as any mother would. And Regina had always thought none of her parents could cause a warm sentiment in her heart? It was flaring red at the moment!

"It's Okay," she tried to soothe her. "I'm Okay, we're going to be just fine."

"You think you could ever forgive me for being so... so...?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," and it didn't. She'd always wanted this, even if she'd been too proud to admit it. She wanted to love and be loved back, but she'd been afraid because she hadn't knew what love felt like before. now she did. Because love was the only explanation she could reach for feeling so happy to see her mother had suffered so badly. Because if she had suffered, she must love her. "I want to hold you. Can't you take this?"

"I want to," Mindreign admited, finally emerging from Regina's shoulder, her eyes all red and puffy. "But they don't want heroes free."

Regina only hesitated a second. "I'm not a hero."

"You're not a villain," Mindreign shook her head, fully convinced.

"We're all villains and we're all heroes," Regina quoted what Warren had once told her. "The only thing that matters is who you let win and if letting you win is the only way I can be with you, then I'm a villain."

"You don't mean that..."

"I'll slain any of these heroes myself if I have to prove it," Regina retorted determinately. "That's just how badly I want this."

Mindreign didn't need to be told twice. She freed Regina with the help of a laser knife, the smell of burnt plastic getting to all around them. Moments later, mother and daughter were hold dearly to the other.

"Now she's free," a deep, loud voice said behind them. "Let's see if she can keep her word."

"She doesn't need to, Boris," Mindreing stood up, her usual derogatory self, and confronted the tall, large man. "I trust her fully."

"But we don't," another villain cut in. "She want in, she has to earn it."

"Silence," Regina commanded, standing up as well. "Who do you think you're talking to?" she looked down on him, hard thing since he was taller. "I don't _have_ to prove anything. I chose to."

As is she owned the street, she walked in between heroes directing angry, furious looks at her. Regina didn't care. Her crossed harms said so, along with her straight spine and her oh so cold silver eyes.

All the villains nearby had gathered around her mother and Boris, and all the prisoners couldn't help but stare at her too. After all, in between a crowd of people in tights, she really stood up in her empire waist, bright blue Valentino and the added inches of her silver platforms.

"I will, however, let you chose," she went on, catching Boom hurt glare, which she dismissed with a smirk. "Who'd you rather be? Family member? School friend? Innocent bystander, maybe?"

"Why not one of each?" Boris laughed. He still didn't think she was serious.

"Okay," she nodded and waved her hand three times. One to get Boom flying and land at her feet, the next to get some random girl in her twenties and the last one meant for Warren.

He had still been unconscious, but the hard landing on the pavement brought him back to his senses right away. Which didn't mean at all that he wasn't still confused.

"What's going on?" was the first thing he asked, staring up at Regina's hard features. "Reg?"

"Save your breath, kid," the young woman said. "She's one of them."

"What? No," he shook his head and looked up at her. "Tell her she's wrong," he waited, but nothing she said. "Regina, tell her!"

"You know what Warren? I don't have to and I don't want to."

"You're not yourself," he continued. "They put you under some sort of charm..."

Her laughter cut him off. But it wasn't her usual warm chuckles, they were cold and derogatory now. "You once told me we were all villains..."

"And heroes! In case you haven't noticed that was the highlight of the phrase!"

"It is a choice, and I've decided," she smiled and closed her fist.

The young woman started screaming in pain. Another wave and she flew away and crashed into a parking meter, where she lay still.

"Don't worry, she's not dead," Regina assured before anyone could ask. "Wouldn't be fun if she were. Now," Boom was risen in the air and flew at supersonic speed toward a building in the other end of the street. They all heard the crash –followed by Eve's cry- and then Boom was flying back to where Regina was standing and landed hard against the curb. As the woman before him, he was unconscious.

On the mean time, Regina had closed the distance between herself and Warren, who'd kept his eyes glued to hers the whole time. "So after all this time, you finally chose this?"

"Yeap."

"Good, then," he smirked back and broke free of his plasticuffs by melting them.

Warren threw a fire ball at Regina, who dodged it quickly but realised soon enough his real intention was launching over her with all his weight, making them fall and then rolling over the pavement struggling to get on top to beat the other one. Regina managed to get on that position twice and punched him as hard as she could, but, inexperienced as she was at punching, she was highly ineffective. Warren managed to get on top most of the time, his body temperature rising up, so much his every touch burnt. With a cry of pain, she sent him flying away from her.

"Have you any idea how much this dress costs?!" she shouted angrily at him, her blue dress scorched in several places.

"Not much, considering what a cheap little bitch you are," he replied in the same tone, firing fireballs with every word.

She diverted them all with lazy waves, keeping her eyes on him as he rushed toward her, his arms on fire, giving her no rest. When he was three feet away Regina rose her hands and he stopped in the middle of the step, up in smoke, both literally and metaphorically. He couldn't move another step forward. He still, however, fire up.

Warren summoned all the fire he could muster and launched it against Regina, who on time rejected it with her telekinetical powers. But there was too much fire, too strong and too hot, so much she couldn't devert it anywhere. It was inmense, growing in between them, roaring, consuming mercilessly whatever it could.

"I'm not stopping Reg!" Warren shouted over the roaring, the screaming of the heroes and the cheering of the villains.

"Good! Can't you get it hotter, hottie?!"

He could, and he did. Breathing or standing near the huge fireball were no longer options.

And then the fire was not between them anymore, but surrounding the unsuspicious villains into a tight crowd, stepping into each other so the ring of fire wouldn't burn them, while Warren made it grow and Regina kept it at bay, side by side.

"I can handle it, you tell them to remain still or asleep or something while we take them back to Foster!" Warren told her, his arms up controlling the spread of the fire.

"They're too many, at least fifty!" she retorted.

"Eighty three," Boom said behind her. "I kept the math."

"Boom..."

"Just do it," he beamed and then smiled. "We'll talk later."

Regina stared back at the ring of fire, behind which the villains faces could be seen, including her mother's. She closed her eyes and pictured the silver tree and the silver leaves...

The villains stopped claiming down their lungs to be released. In fact, they made no sound whatsoever as they sat on the pavement quietly and without struggling. Then Warren reduced the fire and when they were sure the villains would not break free, he vanished it completely, while Regina kept concentrated and gave time to the heroes to handcuff the bad guys. When it was all over, she crumbled. Luckily, Warren was there to catch her.

"You did it," he congratulated her.

"Yeah," she sighed. "Can we talk now?"

"It can..."

"Wait, yeah, I get the drift," she sighed again. "Will you come over tonight?"

"I..." he could say no to her doe eyes. "Sure, I'll be there."

And he let her go just like that and walked away. A few feet later though, he turned around.

"Ray Brandsen is your brother," he blurted out. "You should talk to him."

"He's not lying," Mindreign added after he'd walked away. Regina turned and saw her mother conscious and aware, unlike her villain companions, who were absent minded. Regina raised a brow at her. "Oh, I didn't tell you? I got my powers back a while ago, after we defeated the aliens."

"Why didn't you stop me from capturing your friends?"

Mindreign smiled. "They're not my friends. And I have to admit I felt... relieved when you turned against us. Did you planned it the entire time?" she didn't sound the leas bit mad, just interested.

"That's why I picked Warren, I knew he'd get what I was doing and..." Regina felt her heart cold. "I never meant to take advantage of you... and what you told me," she assured sincerely.

"I know," she grinned mischeively. "And this doesn't change a word I say."

Regina's sight got blurry due to the tears she was about to shed. "It doesn't?"

"Not one bit. This..." she looked around, at her fellow villains. "You can do better than this. I want you to do better than this."

"Mom!"

Regina rushed to her side and held her tighter than she'd ever had, sobbing and laughing. "I'll come visit you at Foster, I promise! I can even look for a way they reduce your time so you..."

"It's alright, my little queen," she kissed the top of Regina's curly head, and for the first time, the pet name didn't sound nowhere near as drearful to her daughter as it had before. Mindreign looked up and saw Ray a few feet away, watching them. "Regina," she commanded. "I want you to remember what I made you forget."

* * *

The late February night was a cool one, with an open sky and no moon, so the stars were pretty much the main characters of it. It was chilly, but only slighty, unlike the cold winter nights they had endured during the past months. The smell in the air was different, anticipating longer, warmer days to come.

Warren Peace was climbing up the roof of number 1459, Oak Ave., endeavouring to get to the far window in the left corner of the house unheard and unnoticed by its inhabitants, like so many times before. He had to admit –grudgingly, of course- that he had worked his way and got pretty good at it. Surely, if he needed to climb up to another house's roof, he'd have no problem whatsoever.

Not that he enjoyed it, though, or looked forward to keep doing it, nor on this roof or another. His days of climbing up windows were done. For better or for worse.

He didn't need to knock on the window. Regina was waiting for him sitting by it, anxiously expecting the moment he'd show up and everything would, finally, be alright.

She shoved into his arms as soon as he sat both feet on her bedroom floor, and kissed him like she'd wanted the entire day. Deep, hard, demanding, he returned it without hesitation. Like lost in a consuming vortex, they let it flow, words left without saying, actions only focused on the then and there, uncaring for the future, for the immediate was all that mattered. All they needed.

It was only a long while later, when they were lying side by side, Regina's face buried in Warren's chest, his hand stroking her shoulder absently, that words were, once again, part of the picture. Sweet words.

"Warren?"

"Mmm?"

"I have something to tell you," she smiled, her face still against his hot skin.

"Shoot."

She breathed in, grinned, and looked up to meet his chocolate stare. "I lov--"

"Don't," he looked away.

Regina's brows shot up, unlike her jaw. "What--?"

"I don't want to hear it."

She smiled again and let go the air she'd been holding. He was just being missish, the dummy. "Okay," she went on and re buried her face, shutting her sleepy eyes. "Just as long as you know I do."

She felt him tense immediately, stop stroking her arm, and get cold. Really cold. Then he pushed her aside –gently, but still pushed her- and left the bed.

"Warren--"

"I told you I didn't want to hear it," he barked, while picking his clothes and throwing them on.

"But--," she left the bed too. "It's Okay, you don't have to get like this," she laughed. "What's wrong with me loving you?"

"It's wrong because I don't!"

Her heart almost stopped. But, really, what had she been expecting? "I didn't say it to get you to say it back," she told him as she walked closer to him. It would've been nice, though, but it didn't mean he didn't care about her or that he might, someday, get to loving her too. "Just forget I said it and come back to bed..."

"No," he refused, fully clothed.

Regina stopped in the middle of the room, for the first time since she'd woken in the alien ship, she felt fear going down her spine and reaching to the very bottom of her soul.

"Why?"

"Because this... thing we have," he shook his head. "It's over."

She only allowed herself a moment to be shocked. "Because I love you and you don't? That's stupid!"

Warren shook his head again. "I'd decided to end it before I came," he confessed.

"Why?" she asked again, only more furiously this time.

"Because you died," he retorted mercilessly. "And I got over you."

"And you still came and screw me, when you were planning to dump me?!" he didn't answer. Too bad. "GET OUT!"

Her room became alive. Her closet door opened and her shoes flew to him and hit him repeatedly, while her bookcase spit the books, the drawers abandoned their respective furniture, the bathroom door slammed opened and closed over and over, the window opened, the curtains flew open, the bed raised from solid ground and chased after him, Warren, the target of every object in the room. He was being hit, slapped, downright beaten and Regina couldn't give a damn about it. Because with every punch the pain in her heart diminished a little and she didn't feel so ashamed and betrayed. But it still hurt, so much she hadn't noticed she was crying out loud, her teeth gritted, her eyes glowing with a kind of anger she'd never know before. Cursing, she intensified the attack, wishing she had better things to hit him with, to cause him the same pain he was causing her.

But it was all to no avail. He'd either dodge the flying projectiles or didn't show to get seriously hurt when the blunt objects did hit home. He was inscrutable, not letting anything out, and this was the man she loved? Well, she sure as hell hated him now!

He'd backed to the window in his effort to stay away of her rage, but never tried to make her reason. Because truth was, it was better this way. No tears, just anger. With one last glance at her silver eyes, blind with madness, Warren jumped through the window and began the quick descending to the back yard.

Alone at last, all the flying objects fell to the floor producing deft sounds as the hit the carpet, untidily. The bed, having no one to corner, stopped by the window, the mattress uneven, the covers thrown to the floor. The books had lost pages, which were the last to fall as they balanced in mid air, slowly going down. The cosmetics she kept in the vanity had broken and spilled, including the expensive perfume Eve had given her for Christmas, and her jewelry box –also a Christmas gift, only from her grandparents- had opened sometime during flying, so the necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings were, as the rest of her stuff, spread over her room.

And in the middle of the chaos, Regina as sitting on her heels, her shoulders down, her eyes absent, feeling cold.

And miserable.

* * *

**I won't be mad if you use dirty words, really.**

**oh, and remember there are only two more chapters to go and the epilogue. bye, till the next update!  
**


	23. No Owen, no Mason, no Frannie, no George

**Hey! Sorry I delayed a little, but I got so blocked no edited version of this chapter seamed good to me. I'm still not entirely happy with this one, but well, I hope you disagree with me and love it. Read and review please!**

Chapter twenty three: No Owen, no Mason, no Frannie, no George.

_My mother was a__n odd mother, but in the good way. She was nice with almost everyone, she loved us and she pushed us to greatness as much as she could. She was a traditional mother, in some ways. She'd bake every afternoon and had lunch in the table by six, and went to every parent/teacher meeting. She never coached my soccer team, though; she was busy working but I never held that against her. I wasn't all that good at soccer anyway. The one thing she would put her foot on, and which made her truly nontraditional, was her attitude to holidays. We never celebrated Christmas or Thanksgiving, although we did get presents at the end of each year, but she and dad preferred to call them New Year's Treats. Halloween was another matter. Owen once asked her what was it all about and she told him about the Celtic festival to celebrate the new year where livestock would be slaughtered and it's bones thrown to the a huge fire to keep the dead at bay. He never went truck or treating again after that._

_But no matter how oddly special my mother was, or how unorthodoxily she raised us, she always seamed happy. Because she was happy. Dad took care of it, more than anybody else, even her brother and uncle, and I like to think we did our part too. She might be skeptical and way strong opined about certain matters, but I know she woke up everyday with a smile on her face. That's why right now I feel like I don't know her..._

"Reggie! Where are you going so early on Saturday?"

She'd run past the living room, hoping no one would notice her, devotedly trying to get to the front door.

"I'm meeting Megan downtown to study!" she cried back, a few steps closer from the door. Maybe she could leave unnoticed before Boom emerged from whichever room he was currently in...?

Fate said no.

"Ray called," he informed, meeting his niece in the hall. "Again. He wanted to check he had your number right."

_Like she's a complete different person..._

"Oh, he has my number right," Regina nodded as she walked out of the house into the bright March morning. "I just haven't bothered to pick up," and she slammed the door closed.

_Like she's not my mother at all._

"You're still writing on that thing?" Mason asked from the other side of the round table they were sitting at inside the crowded café. "It's so obsolete."

"It's what we've got," Georgina retorted, closing her laptop and taking a sip of her mochiatto. "We're too close to the window, we should move..."

"For the seventeeth time, they're not gonna see us," Mason said frustatedly, shoving a hand to rub his tired eyes.

"We don't know how far Frannie can push our luck."

"Shut up, George."

"She looks better," George said after a while, watching Regina go through her books and comparing notes with Megan.

"Yeah," her brother replied, not exactly convinced. "At least she stopped crying herself to sleep," he finally sighed.

"Owen wants to kill Ember..."

"We all want to."

"Yeah, but you know how he gets with him," George went on. "They need therapy."

Mason shrugged. "They do fine as long as they don't live together. Owen going to collage was the best thing that could happen to the Peaces... Ouch!" he shrieked, feeling with his hand his sore knee. "Why're you kicking me?!" he demanded to know, but his sister only raised her brows warningly and pursed her lips. "What? Like somebody here is gonna hear?" he said derogatorily. "They're minding their own business. And luck is on our side."

"Shut up."

* * *

"I'm so sick of studying. Julliard already accepted me, why would they want more grades?"

Regina sighed as she wrote the last word of the sentence on her notebook, putting way too much strength on the final dot. She really wasn't on the mood for anything; Megan, bless her, tried her best. Regina had told her days ago she didn't want to talk about what had happened with Warren, though Megan knew the last little detail. After all, Regina didn't want to talk about it, but she had had the need to cry on someone's shoulder right after _it_ had happened. So Megan talked about anything but the thing she wanted to talk about, and the problem was that she was running out of topics. With the upcoming SAts –due for that week- the notes, and studying and frustration was pretty much all they talked about these days. It suited Regina just fine, though; it kept her focused and distracted on the same time.

Without looking, Regina heard her friend stop in the middle of a sentense about the books they should revise now and tense up in front of her. She raised up her silver eyes to meet Megan's, but she was staring at a point at some distance from them, up Regina's shoulder.

"Don't look," she said, and her hazel stare left its previous focus of attention. "You need to get a real good grade, otherwise you'll end up in Kent's or some lousy hero collage so..."

And just like that she returned to their usual topic. Regina didn't mind it, and forced herself to focus on their revising.

She had met Warren in several places after the fateful night when she'd told him she loved him –or tried to-, and he had rejected her love and her all around. At first she'd strove to avoid him, but then she realised –with Mrs. Ferraro's and the little voice of her conscience's help- that she didn't have anything to be ashamed about. Warren was the dumper and she was the dumpée, he should be ashamed and avoiding her!

So, no matter how much it hurt seeing him go through the halls and classrooms of Sky High as if he hadn't broken her heart, she went on with her life, solving one issue after the other, first being legally alive again, then back to classes and now the SATs. After that... she didn't know.

And her look was pathetic too. She was pale and her eyes had been blood injected for days after _it_ had happened, which made the silver in it shine brightly, so as if she, all by herself, hadn't gotten too much attention by the people at school, then the beaming of her eyes certainly did. And the dark circles around them sure put a nice frame to them. The circles under her eyes, though, were caused by lack of sleep; the little voice that had been bothering with words of regret and encourage on the same time for the past couple of days did so mostly late at night, so she wasn't getting any sleep.

But she wasn't thinking about it, she scolded herself. She should be thinking about the SATs, and the many collages that would accept her and would have to fight between them to get her. And Clark Kent's Institute for Heroes and any other hero collage wasn't going to be a part of them. There was no way in hell that she was going to a school where people knew her and, even worst, knew Warren.

Though it would definately be worst if Warren went to the same collage she ended up in.

No.

She wasn't taking any chance.

If she had to chose a collage, she'd pick the one farthest to whichever Warren Peace went to.

A waitress came over to their table and interrupted Regina's machinations placing a very generous piece of chocolate cake between her and Megan. With a smile to the girls, the waitress left. Megan and Regina stared at the cake and then to each other.

"Did you order this?" Megan asked, raised brow.

"No," Regina retorted.

"Any chance it's on the house?"

Regina dig in the massive chocolate with one of the two forks the waitress had brought. "I don't care."

* * *

"Did Frannie just sent them cake?" George said irritably, staring straight to Regina and Megan as they shared the cake.

"Well, he's very thoughtful..." Mason started on defence of his twin.

"This is the kind of thing that can get us caught!" she whispered furiously.

"George," he leaned closer. "Frankly, we've already screwed they're lives enough. I don't think chocolate cake is gonna do any harm--"

His cell started ringing. With a tired sigh he shoved it to his ear. "Yes, Owen, we know Frannie sent the cake-- What? Where? Okay," he stood up and, followed by George, they left the coffee house.

"Something actually happened?" his sister guessed, anxiety rising. She saw as Mason put his sunglasses on and remained quiet for a moment, obviously using his powers to see where exactly they were needed.

"It's Ember," he said. "He's in danger. Third street's pharmacy--"

No sooner he'd said it, they were there, in between medicine stuffed aisles, with people laying on the floor protecting their heads, making scared noises, some crying, and Warren Peace, flamed up, fighting tirelessly with a grown man who seamed made of shiny yellow crystal. He was unstoppable, the shiny fellow. Warren's fire wouldn't hurt him in any apparent way, and his punches were as hard as rocks. Or, as the case was, as a heavy metal.

Warren didn't care though. He took punch after punch, gave some more, and heated up so much it started having an effect on his contender, as if it was getting slightly less solid on the surface, but not enough to beat him.

"Hey, Goldie!" Mason shouted loudly, his voice amplified, but not exactly louder. More like an oppressing, dense sound that hurt the hears of those within Mason's radium. The fellow covered his hears, his face deformed into a painful shrug, though he made no sound, or at least none they could get.

One last angry look around him and he vanished.

George run to kneel next to Warren, who had fallen due to the noise as well. "Are you Okay?" she asked, shoving her hands to his arms and chest, looking for injures.

He irritably set them aside. "Who the hell are you?"

"You're _so_ welcome!" Mason retorted sarcastically. "We don't mind at all saving your ass!"

"Again," George added.

Warren stood up and flared up. "I'm not asking again."

Mason and George exchanged a look. "Fire down," George ordered. "Don't freak out. Take a nap."

Warren obeyed, of course, though he knew exactly what they were doing thanks to his omnilinguist abilities. Right before nodding off, he wished they were more useful.

"I'll take him to the Sanctum," George said. "You go get Doxy. Topaz might go after her now he knows we're onto him," she hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. "Be careful!" then she vanished with Warren.

"Ain't I always?"

* * *

"Why haven't you gotten her?"

"Hello, big brother, I'm doing great, thanks for asking."

"It's no time for games, Mase," Owen scolded irritably, sitting in the chair next to his brother's, staring to Regina's table. "We have to get her out of here. Topaz may come--"

"But he hasn't yet, so I'm waiting for her to leave on her own time and shepherd her away of curious looks," Mason replied in the same tone of annoyance. "I can't just go there and abduct her. Besides, she's leaving."

They watched as Regina stood up and greeted Megan good bye and followed discreetly out to the street, toward her parked car.

"Can't you turn the gas into water?" Owen asked.

"I'm no alchemist. _Nobody_ can turn gas into water," he snorted. "I can't re-invent physics just to suit your little--"

"Okay, but what _can_ you do?"

"Oh, I'm already doing it."

A few feet away from them, Regina was trying to get her car started, all to no avail. It was swamped or something like that. She had a tank full of gas, it was a brand new car, so it was highly impossible that something had just broken...

She got off the car and opened the hood, unaware of the large amount of white steam that made her cough and irritated her eyes. There was the engine. She could tell that much. Boom had often tried to teach her about mechanics, just in case something like this ever happened to her, why hadn't she paid more attention?

"Need a hand?" a male voice called.

"Yeah, thanks," she turned to meet the newcomers. "I have no idea what's wrong with it..."

They were two, both tall, dark haired, wide framed and handsome. But they were odd, Regina saw it at once. The way they walked and how they crossed the street, looking to both sides, she had the weird feeling they weren't just checking there were no cars coming, like they were taking notice of the things around them, and her, all in an instant. And their complexions, as good looking and similar as they were, were awfully familiar to her, like she should know them from somewhere. The tallest one smiled a wickedly charming smile with his curved lips and stood next to her, crossing his arms and frowing at the engine, while the other leaned over one of the engine thingys. She recognized the short bouncing curls.

"Hey, weren't you at Megan Hazec's party at the Spencer Weimz?" she asked.

He didn't look up. "Yeah, I guess--"

"I'm Regina, remember me? The pathetic chick on the terrace?"

The guy next to her turned his head to the other side and made a sound that was very similar to an anry growl.

"Yeah--" he felt one of the thingys with his bare hands and opened something. Then he looked up, fire in his eyes, and stared furiously at the other guy. "There's _water_ on the engine," he gritted out.

"There is?" Mason replied faking shock. "Gee, I wonder how that happened."

Regina didn't miss the exchange. "You have purple eyes," she noticed, staring at Owen.

"Actually," Mason cut in. "He's got bright violet eyes, like an Amethyst. I have purple eyes."

Regina went from one pair of eyes to the other and then to Owen't hand pressing against the engine, steam still coming out of it.

"Okay," she nodded and run away as fast as she could, back to the coffee house.

"Why's she running away?"

Owen hit him in the shoulder. "Because you freaked her out!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

All this went unnoticed by Regina; all she really cared anyway was getting the hell away from them as fast as she could. She was in the middle of the street so using her powers was only allowed as a last resource, but that didn't bothered her. The coffee house was just a few feet away, she'd reach it, get help from Megan, call her uncle, Colin, Mike and Kyle and they'd make sure the freaky guys with the weird eyes stayed away from her.

But as she'd already determined in the past weeks, fate hated her.

It was actually kind of weird. Her body became weightless, or so it felt, so in between steps she started like floating and walking in midair getting nowhere and making no further advance to the coffee house. It was like she was an astronaut and she was walking on the moon.

"What-- the-- hell--?" and she couldn't speak, also! It was like the air on her lungs was liquid and oppressing.

"We don't mean to hurt you," the guy with the short bouncing curls stated caringly.

"You're in danger," the other went on. "I'm Mason, by the way, and this is my brother Owen. We have been sent to save you!"

"Save-- my-- ass!"

"That too," Owen retorted. "Listen, it goes like this: either you come with us and you don't get killed or you stay here and you face a slow and painful death."

* * *

"I don't know for how long I can keep him sleeping," George said, pacing up and down through the room.

"Just long enough till Owen and Mason get back with mom... Don't you give me that look," he warned her. "Our cover is done, it doesn't matter how I call her."

"What are we gonna tell them?"

"The truth," he shrugged. "If we don't, they'll just make us tell them."

He was interrupted by the sight of Regina Boomowski walking in the room, stony faced, her spine straight and her neck high. She was without fear, more like pissed off.

Regina took in everything she needed to know about the room. It was small, it had three doors besides the one she'd just entered through, with a computer set with several plasma screens in a corner and some chairs around it. Right in front of her there was this girl who couldn't be a day older than fifteen, though she was a few inches taller than Regina herself, with short, light auburn hair stroke with black locks here and there, her mouthed rounded into a perfect "holly, crap". Regina almost snorted at seeing she had light lavender eyes.

Sitting on a couch there was another guy. He was clearly Mason's twin, seemingly identical, except for a few details she took in remarkably fast, like the color of his eyes, which followed in line like the rest of his siblings, only his were electric indigo, shockingly hypnotizingly so. He was also a bit taller than his twin, and he looked like he wanted to laugh real hard, like he found the whole situation hilarious for some reason only he knew.

But Regina didn't give a shit for those people. She wanted to find the responsible for that tasteless practical joke she was being played and beat the bejesus out of him.

Except he was sleeping like a baby, stretched loosely on a couch.

Temper rising, she run toward him and hit him on the head, repeatedly till he came to his senses. And insulted him all the way down.

"What--?"

"Jerk! You miserable, idiotic, useless piece of shit!"

"Stop hitting me!"

"Yeah, I'll do that when you stop breathing and you're no longer my problem!"

"Ouch!"

"Oh, that hurts?! That's nothing compared to the hell you're gonna have to go through--!"

She was forced to stop, not because she felt any kind of comisiration for Warren, actually quite far from it. It was the laughing on her back that distracted her and made her turn in between speech to glare at the four weird siblings.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Are we entertaining you?"

They didn't answer, mainly because they were too busy barking with laughter.

"And these is the people you got to make a fool out of me," Regina snorted, eyes back at Warren's. "You could've at least found someone more competent."

"Me? What do I have to do with any of this?" Warren retorted. Now she wasn't abusing him, he had time to think straight. "I don't even know how I got here."

"You were sleeping," she rejected.

"Which emphazises the _I don't know how I got here_ part."

"Yeah, right. And I believe that cuz you're _soo _reliable--"

"He's telling the truth," the girl cut in impatiently, wringing her hands. "I put him out."

Both Warren and Regina looked at her up and down, inspecting her and seizing her. In Warren's case, his left brow was up the whole time.

"She's not lying," he whispered to Regina with his husky voice. "I'm reading them."

She nodded, shivering with the sound of his voice and realising all of the sudden just how close they were to the other. As if that didn't bother her, she moved a few steps to the other side. "You're gonna tell us what's happening here."

"And we're gonna know if you're bullshitting us."

"Okay," the elder said, nodding and taking the lead. "I'm Owen, and these are Mason, Frannie and George. We're siblings."

"At one point _we _were one egg," Frannie added, patting his twin on the shoulder.

"We're here to keep a bad guy away from you," Owen went on as if his brother hadn't interrupted him. "His name is Topaz, you already met him," he told directly to Warren.

"He just came on to me, I have no idea why."

"Well," Owen hesitated and looked around him for support.

"He's-- he's," George started shakily. "Mad at you."

"Sorta," Mason added.

"He's not really mad at _you_, more like mad who you'll become," Owen explained.

"Whoever he is, he should be afraid," Regina replied. "You're not telling us everything, though."

"Spit it out."

The siblings exchanged looks. "We're-- ah-- It's like this--"

"We're your kids," Mason took the lead away from Owen. "We're from the future, like in the movie, to save you from this villain who wants to kill you."

Regina's mind stopped. Froze. Stopped. On some ulterior level of awareness she knew Warren was in the same state of shock she was. But as her mind re-started, Regina realised she had the urge to laugh.

There were three guys and a teen girl standing in front of them affirming to be their future children.

Which led to the assumption that she had conceived them.

With Warren's help.

Meaning they had some sort of relationship in the future.

Meaning they had a future.

...

That was hilarious!

She started laughing, knowing it impossible she had no room for even considering it true. It was ridiculous!

But then she realised she was laughing alone. Next to her, Warren was as stiff as a rock, he was tense and he was _pale, _like his permanent tan had abandoned him. Regina even had the urge to move aside in case he got sick. Which made her wonder why he was reacting so strangely to such a lie.

Unless it wasn't a lie.

She stopped laughing, but still refused to give that assumption a shot only because Warren was acting oddly. She punched him in the shoulder to get him out of his absent mindedness. He looked down on her, his chocolate orbs saying more than she needed to know.

"Oh my God," she gasped.

"Don't freak out," Owen said carefully. "It's really not that bad..."

"This is..." Warren uttered, closed his mouth and reopened it a couple of times like a fish out of water. "I mean..." he shook his head. "I'd never name no daughter of mine _Frannie_," He determined, as if that made it all more rational.

Regina, on the other hand, felt hollow. "She's not Frannie," she said after a few moments, with the exact tone of voice she'd use to communicate someone had died. "She's George."

Warren jerked his head to her side so fast he might as well had broken it. "What?"

"Her name is Georgina."

"How d'you know that?"

"Before she settled in Maxville she always checked in at the motels as Georgina Owens," George explained, her brothers nodding in approval.

"Oh, my God," Warren and Regina said at once.

"Yeah, I'm Frannie," he said raising his hand. "When you were pregnant, you though you were gonna have a boy and a girl so you picked Frances after--"

"My grand aunt," Warren said.

"Yeah. I ended up being a boy..."

"Allegedly..." Mason added.

"Ergo, Francis."

Warren and Regina remained silent again. They really had nothing to say other than "Oh my God" and "What the fuck?!".

"Listen," Owen started. "I know you probably have lots of questions, but we really have to get moving. Topaz may already be on out tail."

"Yeah, we have to get you somewhere safe."

"But you're gonna have to trust us."

"Can you?"

* * *

For the second time on that day, Warren woke up not knowing where he was or how he had gotten there. He last remembered standing next to Regina, hearing their future children asking for them to trust them. He didn't even considered the possibility of it being a dream.

That would be tremendously relieving, but he knew it wasn't so. They hadn't lied and his imagination wasn't capable to produce such a dream.

He still didn't know how he had gotten there, but Warren was sure he was in car, to go by the sound of the engine and the movement and the position he was sitting. He opened his eyes.

"So, we say we don't trust you and you knock us out?" he asked out loud to no one in particular. "That's not cool."

He stretched the sleepiness out of him –at least they hadn't tied him up- and looked around the vehicle. It was large, enough to fit the six of them comfortably. Owen was driving with George in the passenger seat, then Francis and Mason came behind them and finally Regina and Warren. She was still sleeping, her lap crossed by the huge head of an equally huge white dog.

"We had to," George explained apolecticaly. "We have to keep you safe."

"And you can't do that in Maxville? Where the hell are we?" he said angrily, looking out the window into the countryside.

"We're heading north," Francis offered, turning on his seat so he could face Warren. "Topaz really doesn't like the cold. So," he smiled. "Now you can yo nowhere, any question?"

"Yeah," he nodded, frowning. "How the hell did you happen?"

"Well, dad, when a man and a woman really love each other..."

"Say that again and I'll roast you alive," Warren warned.

"Jeez, calm down, I'm just kiddin' you."

"B'sides," Mason cut in, adopting the same position of his twin. "What do you want us to say? That you got together to save the human race and no feelings were involved?"

"Can't you omit that part for now so we don't have to get violent?" Warren shot back.

"Sure," Frannie laughed. "Owen here was a mistake--"

"Yeah, you were so not ready to have him--"

"He only exists because mom's doctor mixed up her pill prescription--"

"I'm right here," Owen reminded them from the front seat.

"Anyway," the twins breathed at once. "Then we came--" Mason went on.

"One short year after him--"

"Only that you actually _wanted_ another kid--"

"Hey!" Owen cried again, but no one paid attention.

"And then Georgie was the cherry atop our little family."

"Owen's the black ship, in case you didn't get the drift," Frannie whispered loudly.

Warren waited two whole minutes till the sibling were done with the hilarity. "When?"

"It's, what, like ten years?" Mason asked out loud.

"Nine years to get married, two more till Owen is born," George replied. "Or at least we hope so..."

The three brother shot her furious glances. Warren didn't miss them.

"What'd she mean by that?"

"Nothing," Owen determined, looking at him through the rear view mirror. "I got your powers, you know. Go pyros."

"And mom's dad's too," George added. "I got persuation and greatgrammy's"

Warren nodded. "So you control time like my grams."

"Yeah," she smiled brightly. "I only wished I could've known her--"

"Whoa, she dies?! When does that happen?!"

"It's-- It's a long time really--"

"She's fifty years old, you're telling me she dies in the next ten years? How?"

"I think we're done with information, Okay, George?" Mason shot her a meaningful look. "Anyway, our powers are by far the coolest," he changed the subject with a smug smile. "We're both omniscient and I control physics and all, you know, can play with it however I want and Frannie does luck, big time. Like he can control the fate of everyone around him."

"I've been referred to as the master of luck and probabilities."

"And he's totally modest, too," Owen added with a wicked smile.

"Don't get me started on your virtues, big brother--"

"Cut it off!" Warren called exasperated. "You're acting like babies."

Four pairs of brows shot up. "God, I hope the priest was eloquent on the burial of your humor, dad," Frannie said, hardly containing the laughter.

"Need I repeat my warning concerning that particular word?"

"Okay, then I'll find another way to put it," Frannie shrugged. "Would daddy do?"

* * *

_I'm beginning to understand the root of my mother's lack of happiness toward this little situation we've come across. It has to be my dad and that whole "I don't want your love" crappy speech. It came all very clear to me as my dad reached out to choke Frannie because he'd called him daddy after being specifically told not to and my mom suddenly woke up –though I'm sure she had just being pretending to be asleep- and started shouting and commanding him to stop. Now, imagine my dad getting physical with Frannie, Frannie defending himself and Mason jumping in trying to break through them, all three relatively large men, inside a piece of crap SUV, with Lucifer barking right in between them, me turning and yelling at them and Owen struggling to maintain control on the car as the mass of fighting, cursing relatives came nearer to him. And atop it all my mommy's powers getting ballistic, dad telling her to stop crashing the windows and her shouting at him, warning him to refrain from talking to her unless he wanted get beaten. It was just like a family holiday trip._

_Luckily –and yes, Frannie had something to do with it- we didn't get pulled over, not that it would've been terrible if we had; we would've had to convince the officer the let it go by, and since that's kind of my specialty... But then again, I don't think my mom and dad are trustworthy just yet. They're too shaky, keep freaking out over us. I don't get it. Our life is great, they don't even know half of it and they already determined it sucks. And these are not just my assumptions. You see, after the whole daddy incident, and with both my parents awake, questions kept coming up and silly us, we thought answers would calm them and easy them. Again, silly us._

_We were absolutely sure that telling them they owned a nice house, yet not exactly big enough, in Addington's suburbia would make them happy, as well as knowing they had both gone to collage together at Kent's and that dad is Foster's warden and mom teached mad science at Sky High. Dad sulked over it and mom almost cried. Still, I think they wouldn't have taking it this bad if they hadn't broken up..._

Regina barely noticed the car had stopped. For the past twenty minutes she'd been staring out the window, seeing the cars and the fields pass by, silently whishing she was back in her room, unaware of what she'd been told. Her children were talking among them, casting worried glances at her which she didn't pay one little bit of attention to, and the beautiful Great Dane –Lucifer, they said his name was- resting his head on her lap, willing her to pat him.

She didn't need to turn around to she and Warren were like two mirror images; she felt him next to her, with a rucksak between them, separating them, watching through the window, probably wishing the same she wished and trying to figure out what was going to happen next.

But they had stopped in a gas station, even if Regina was only aware of it when Owen passed by her side and asked her if she wasn't coming with. What to do them, when she really didn't want to go but knew staying behind was not an option?

So she got out and went straight to the girl's restroom, the only place she felt safe and away in, since Warren wouldn't follow. Only once there she realized she really needed to use it.

Regina could only remember one time when she had vomited in a filthy gas station's bathroom. She'd gone to San Fransisco and ate bad sushi in Chinatown right before getting on a bus heading north, and ended up stuck in some motel for two whole days since she couldn't bare the movement of the bus. So she could honestly say kneeling in the dirty floor, neck deep in the toilet wasn't one of the highlight of any day, even if that particular day was bad all over.

Someone had pulled up her hair and was aplying a weth cloth to the back of her neck. Turning around, she saw George.

"Feeling any better?" she asked sweetly.

"Are you kidding me? Do I look like I'm feeling okay?"

"Sorry..."

Regina broke free and strolled to the sink, feeling a little relief on the cold water running through her face. That very relief abandoned her as she stared back at her own image and saw just how crappy she looked. She was used to the dark circles under her eyes, and to them being reddish, but she was too pale to her sake. A few steps behind her, George stood.

"What's with the eyes?" she asked, genually curious.

"They're probably because you have a melanin deficiency."

"Right, of course," she sighed. "So this pathetic, miserable life I carry in the future," Regina grimaced. "You're saying I actually like it?"

She nodded. "You're happy."

"How can you know that?"

"Because you're not nearly as selfish and self-centered as you are now," George shrugged.

And Regina lost it. "I'm self-centered?! You're telling me I end up going to stinky Kent's, that all my dreams about being a kick ass scientist lead me to teach Mad Science and that I've given up everything I thought I would have to become a soccer mom, and I'm the selfish one?! You're selfish, because we could've done a lot better and you're too afraid to admit it cuz t might screw up your crappy little life!"

"Our life is not crappy!" she argued, her cheeks red with anger.

"I'm sure it's very satisfying being an underpaid teacher, popping up four bundles of joy and still managing to have dinner at six!" Regina shouted ironically.

"It's all about you and how your dreams don't come true, isn't it?! Well, newsflash, mommy, maybe you don't have what it takes to be a kick ass scientist! Maybe you're just a lame school teacher! God," she snorted. "I feel like I don't know you."

"Because you don't know me! That woman yo call mother is a lie, she doesn't exist!"

As the mirrors broke, Regina stormed out, leaving a speechless Georgina behind.

Outside, things were only going slightly better. Warren and the others had heard every single word –even the guy charging them had heard the discussion- and none of them were exactly thrilled about what was being said. It looked like any of the brothers were more than willing to chase after Regina as she stormed past the and beat some sense into her if necesary, but a single glance from Warren froze them. After all, they didn't know Regina, not this Regina at least; but Warren did.

He found her behind a large truck, sitting on the curb bracing her knees her eyes fixed in the horizon. With no word, he sat next to her.

"Kent's sucks," he said after a while. "Foster sucks."

"Addington sucks," Regina added.

"We suck," he sighed, throwing a rock away.

"Correction, we _will _suck."

"Yeah," he nodded, and placed his hand on her thigh. "I know they didn't show up in the best of times, but the sooner we finish this Topaz guy, the sooner they'll leave."

Regina nodded, forcing herself not to look at his hand on her thigh but feeling it like it was made of lead.

"And then we can... I don't know," he sighed, removing his hand.

"I don't know sounds fine to me," Regina half smiled and stood up.

* * *

_My parents suck so bad I'm temped to get violent with them. If only I wasn't mind tied._

_Yeah, that's right. My mother commanded me and my brothers not to do anything to stop her and dad to get back to Maxville, just because they think attracting Topaz to them is a good idea. I mean they've taken over the car and the guys and I are back here sitting up straight, not even allowed to say a word unless they ask. I now procede to correct my earlier statement: _this _is just like a regular family holiday._

_At least they didn't mind me using the laptop, though I'm sure the sound of me furiously pressing the keys will eventually get over their nerves. At least they're talking now. That should make things better and if she would just..._

"Georgina, put that thing away before I toss it out the window," Regina ordered from the passenger seat.

"I'd almost forgotten how it sounded when she was mad," Mason told his twin.

"Shut it," Warren cut in. "We're almost getting to Maxville, maybe you can enlighten us about Topaz so we can beat him."

"What's his power?" Regina added.

"His name was Peter Bolt and he used to be one of the guards at Foster," Owen started. "But he wasn't cool, so you fired him. He was a sidekick then..."

"Hero support," Warren corrected from behind the wheel.

"Whatever. Point is he got his hands on some radioactive isotopes from the prison's lab and exposed himself to them."

"Only he had with him this engagement ring with a two cariat yellow topaz from his dead fiancée..." Mason went on.

"Bastard couldn't afford a real gem..." Frannie put in.

"So the isotopes made the topaz fluctuate and it changed Peter's physical characteristics," Mason said. "It's all very complicated and long to explain but the point is he pretty much has every topaz-like properties."

"So he's just a guy with a type 8 hardness and a perfect cleavage?" Regina snorted. "We can so take him down."

"Future you couldn't," George retorted.

"Then future us must have a death wish for some reason. How did he time travelled?"

"He stole a devise from Foster's lab--"

"So not only I have a crappy job," Warren cut in. "I'm also crappy at it?"

"Save your breath," Regina advised him. "You're never going to make them admit our future life is cloudy and miserable."

"Because it's not--"

"Shut up!" Warren and Regina cried at once. "And why did you followed Topaz?"

"Because you had to stay behind with mom," Frannie told Warren.

"So I'm a soft spot too?"

"No, you were pregnant and in a coma because Topaz is 8 hardness and you couldn't take a punch," George shot from the back.

That fell over them like a bucket of icy water. Like they mourning her when she was sitting right there. Even Warren acted weirdly and wouldn't look at her.

"Pregnant. Again? What am I, a rabbit?" Regina laughed.

Strangely, she had the urge of not seeing them so sad.

* * *

_What I have just done might keep my parents apart for the rest of their lives._

_It was all going so well, I didn't think she'd ask me to do it... But she did. And I did it._

_Just like they had anticipated, Topaz tracked us back to Maxville and showed up in the middle of the road in front of us, resplendent on the sunset, powerful and strong. My brothers and I could've take him down, we never doubted that. We've only been avoiding a confrontation because our parents always did and before we came back dad told us to try our best and not fight him if possible, since it had been so hard on him to beat him. So, when we saw him there, willing mom and dad to get out of the car and fight, we were ready to jump in and get the job done. Only my mom commanded us to stay back._

_I'd never seen my brothers so angry and worried before, and I was too. the younger version of our parents were walking right into what we believed was doom, with no chances to come out victorious. We thought that was it._

_And then I realized-- My mom had been right. They could've done much better, because truth is, they are better than the parents I knew all my life._

_They didn't hesitated on their attacks, they were like one mind, anticipating what the other was planning and pulling new trick up their sleeves to bring Topaz down. For a moment I forgot they were Foster's warden and a Science teacher, hoping to get back home with their children. They were Warren Peace and Regina Boomowski. They were heroes, and they were kicking ass!_

_We stopped crying for them to free us so we could help almost immediately after the battle began. It was clear to us that they were handling it just fine. And then with the final blast of a hundred hellfires surrounding Topaz, he crumbled and never got up back on his feet again._

_We saw them hug, laugh and jump, catching a glimpse of the happiness they did have on the future, which was still there and would emerge once again, eternally, till one day one of them no longer lived. They talked holding hands, and that's when mom's expression changed. That's when she leaned over his left ear and whispered the words I read on her lips. No Owen, no Mason, no Frannie, no George._

_Dad sat on the floor then, waiting, while mom walked over to us, crying her heart out like her world had just fallen apart. Sobbing, she opened the passenger's seat door, got in, left it open and sat facing her side. Then without looking at us, she said this words:_

"That pathetic, miserable, pinkish life you say we have-- I want it. But it has to be true, not because he or I feel we should have it. It has to happen simply because it has to. I made him forget. Now's my turn. Make me forget. Make me believe you don't exist so one day you do."

_Owen and Mason disagreed with it, unlike Frannie. He thought it was for the best, was convinced they were meant for each other and they would eventually get together like they were supposed to. I, on the other hand, was not in favor of either option. I kept asking myself what if? What if they don't? What if they do? The argument was hard and could've stretched indefinitely, if only I hadn't got lost in my mother's silver eyes. She needen't say a word, in fact, she remained silent while we discussed what was the best thing to do, and maybe she was like that because she knew –she knew- I would do as she asked. Because after seeing them __beat Topaz __so outstandingly I couldn't deny it; they could do better than the life they had with us. They were too good for Kent's, for Addington, for Foster, for Sky High._

_So I made her forget._

_And as my brothers and I disappear into oblivion out of this time and back to ours, I keep asking myself--_

_What if...?_

It was Regina's favourite time of the day, the first few awake seconds right before she opened her eyes to the morning day, although, technically it was the middle of the night. The warmth in her cozy bed, the smell of her hair on the pillow, the silence that surrounded her... She enjoyed it so much even when she was completely awake she kept her eyes shut. She had felt so tired... after studying so much all the night before and meeting Megan early that morning, she had gone straight to her bed when she'd returned home from downtown. She should've used that time to study, but the tiredness had worn her out, it really had...

A soft knocking blew up her bubble and reminded her she was still part of the world of the living and she had people connected to her live who might find it strange that she'd slept throughout the whole day. Mumbling something about not being presentable, she sat up and rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes. The knocking again...

"Coming!" she cried as she headed to the door and opened it, only to find...

No one. The hallway was completely empty. With a gasp, Regina turned and stared down the window.

He was there, Warren, piercing two wholes in her skull with his chocolate eyes. With her nod the window opened and he leaned over it, just enough to poke his head inside the room. Regina didn't notice she'd leaned over the closed door and slipped til she sat on the carpeted floor.

"I woke up and I just..." he started shakily. "You died. You were alive one day and next thing I know you're gone and you're having a funeral. It was more than I thought I could bear," his sharp tone got to her making her tremble and get her eyes watery. "And then I found you alive and you act as if nothing happened, you don't see how much it messed me thinking you were gone and then you come and tell me you love me...! I--" he grimaced, avoiding her look. "You asked me why was that so wrong... Well, It's wrong because I do too. And I can't be with you because I can't lose you again, Reg."

"You're losing me anyway," she sobbed before he said another word.

She could practically feel him gulp down his tears. "It's not the same. Good-bye, Reg."

* * *

**I know this chapter opens a lot of questions and trust me, if had put in all the drama and information I wanted, it would've been way too long. oh, and I had to cut down the Ray issues except for Regina's comment on the beginning on the chapter, but I'll cover it in the next one, which in case you've forgotten is the finale (except for the epilogue, but that's a whole different deal...).**

**so... loved it? hated it? review!  
**


	24. Gray, cloudy and twisted

**I have a perfectly good reason for delaying this chapter. You see, I had and eye infection and wasn't supposed to stay near a computer for long, hence my late update. Sorry! Okay, I won't keep you much longer, I know you're dying to see how this story ends! please review! I would like to get 100 reviews by the time this fic is finished, and since we're only and epilogue away...**

Chapter twenty four: Gray, cloudy and twisted.

"Your performance is quite impressive, young man. As much as I can see in your file, you've done nothing so far that could stop you from one day becoming the future of the Agency."

As he was talking, reading and nodding, Christopher Rams, better known as Lightwire, also managed to smile, which to someone who'd previously heard all sorts of things about him and yet never got a glimpse of him was infinitely disconcerting. Rams, the head of the Agency, was known to be a tyrant, a past tense hero who had realised on time he was better as an administrator. He was actually the one who had come up with idea, the _vision_, of uniting every Maxville hero and sidekick under the same organization, in order to enhance the city's security by assigning each one of the associates the task he or she was more appropriate for. What he'd idealized as institutional democracy, however, was in fact far from the practice. There were only a handful of heroes who got to do what they most loved, saving the world –or the city, as the case might be-, and they were the greatest: the citizens loved them, the governments depended on them and they shadowed all the others who weren't even considered to prove what they could do, unintentionally in most cases, but still happening.

"Of course, Mr. Page has only good things to say about you, and his report on the villain cornering last February is very flattering. Four years in Clark Kent's Institute should build up the hero in you this city needs."

The speech was the same to every intern who was running down Sky High's finishing line, the future Kent's graduates. Warren knew the drill by heart and exactly why it existed. To corner them, the young soon to be heroes to sign with the Agency, because once there's a contract with your name on it the Agency owned you and you had to respect it and obliged it. If the Agency said jump, you'd ask how high.

"After a year with us, you'll be entering Kent's with the best of recomendations, aside from our scholarship, surely to continue in the heroic path you started the moment you embraced your powers and your true destiny," Rams beamed out. He slid a formal-looking sheet over the shinny polished desk and placed a golden pen in front of Warren. "Now, if you sign this, we'll get your tuition started right away."

Warren stared down the contract which a year ago he'd longed to sign. The contract that would tie him and put him on the right way to the top, to save Maxville. The contract he'd wanted and now repulsed him. Sensing Rams piercing his skul waiting for him to do what he was supposed to do, Warren raised his eyes and met his beaming glare.

"I can't do it," he confessed.

Rams went speechless, but only for an instant, after which he laughed and waved away the silly supposition that had clouded his mind momentarily. "Of course you can!" he grinned. "You're over eighteen, it's a valid contract, don't worry about it!"

"I know I can do it," Warren quickly amended his words. "I just don't want to."

Rams couldn't wave away that. "What do you mean?"

"I don't think being part of the Agency is in my best interest."

Warren had hoped that Rams would take it well and would understand what he was going through, and that they'd shook hands peacefully before Warren walked away for good. Reality proved him naive.

"What?! After all the nurturing and money we've spent on your training you decide we're not in your best interest?!" Rams shot up, the tyrant in the flesh, leaning on the desk heartbeats away of fulfilling his wish to choke Warren.

"With all due respect, sir, but whatever training I received came from Sky High," Warren stated, left brow up, not the least bt intimidated by his superior's rage. "All I learnt here was to clean after other heroes' mess."

"That's the way everybody starts! What'd you think?" he laughed derogatorily. "That you'd walk in here and become head hero over night?"

"No," Warren retorted, standing up and leaning on the desk as well. "But frankly, sir, you got dozens of worthy heroes here and they've been waiting for years for their chance, rotting and wasting they abilities, when all they do is chase after burglars. I'm not interested in being one of them."

"Don't you dare saying I don't run this place right!" he spitted out. "I built this Agency, and every time someone tried to destroy it I rose it from the ashes! For thirty five years, I made sure this Agency save Maxville!"

Warren drew himself up stiffly. That gave him an added inch on Rams, and superior height went side by side with arrogance. "Thirty five years? Maybe is time you quit."

Rams angry shouting stopped him right before Warren crossed the office's double doors. "You walk away and no hero school and no agency'll have you. You'll end up just like the pathetic losers your parents are!"

With those dark, satanic looks, Warren could make his scowl downright chilling when he turned as serious as he did now. "Care to repeat that?"

Blanched, struggling not to hide under his desk, Rams shook his head. Warren smirked. "Thought so."

* * *

"It's so drama much," Regina snorted. "Having graduation and prom not only on the same day but on the last day of school too? Talk about clean cuts."

"Honey, they are supers. They wear bright color spandex with billowy capes, they invented the word _drama_," Mindreign stated as she read Harvard's brochure. "I'm all in for this one," she commented.

"I don't know..." Regina bit her lip, staring down on the many brochures spread on the table.

"It's not such a big deal," she shrugged. "You got Hopkins, Princeton and Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Penn... They all offer great programs and superb education. Just pick the number one," Mindreign grabbed the brochure and held it up so her daughter could see it better, smiled and said in a sing sang voice. "_Harvard_!"

"Johns Hopkins Hospital ranks number one," she retorted holding up the respective brochure.

"Then go to Hopkins," Mindreign shrugged.

"Maybe I will."

"Fine."

"Fine," Regina grabbed the Harvard brochure and put it away along with the others, except for. Her eyes narrowed as she looked back at her mother, who was inspecting her fingernails. "You wanted me to pick Hopkins."

"Sure I did," she confessed. "My father used to give lots of money to them. There's a hall named after him, you know. Speaking of medical care," she adamantly changed the subject. "Have you talked to your brother lately?"

"No, and I'm not going to," Regina stated, all trace of a smile vanishing from her face. "He lied to me."

"So did I, but you still forgave me," Mindreign pointed out.

"You were on a tricky situation and went to prison, he could've looked for me."

"Did you let him explain why he didn't?"

"I just don't see the point on digging up old wounds."

"Old wounds?" arched brow, Mindreign half smirked. "It's been less than four months since you remembered he existed. Those are baby wounds. You should give him a chance."

"No," Regina determined stubbornly. She checked the time on her wrist watch. "It's almost time for me to go. Colin's probably waiting on the lobby."

"Oh, yes, I meant to ask you about that... What are you and this Colin boy, exactly?"

"He's my friend and I asked him to teleport me back to Maxville so I wouldn't loose a whole day visiting you," Regina shot back. "I'm as single as you could get."

"And what about prom?" she shot back. "Who's taking you?"

"The guys and I are going as a group--"

"I bet that'll be fun--"

"It will be," Regina assured and stood up, crossed the table to hug her mother good-bye. "I'll come again after the wedding. I'll bring you some cake."

She had only walked two feet away when Mindreign called her back. "Ray told me you had a thing with Peace... and that it's over. How's that going?"

Feeling as if a hand had closed around her heart, Regina turned and smiled weakly. "I went through a rough time, and then he talked to me and for the past two and a half months we've been blissfully unaware of each other. I'm doing okay," she nodded, as much to herself as to convince her mother. "I'm okay."

* * *

Regina loved Evelyn. She really did.

And she had to repeat at least a thousand times a day to remind herself of the only good reason she had against commiting man slaughter. Well, that and the fact she made Boom happy.

She had to admit it was kind of hard sometimes, watching them in love, planning the wedding and they future life to come, but it was also very inspiring. Regina had been a mess after Warren confessed both his love for her and his fear to be with her; she'd sink bottom and barked to everyone for about a week. Megan had uselessly tried to bring her out of it, as much as Colin and the guys, but no matter how hard they tried to make her talk, smile or forget, their efforts proved useless. So Regina retreated to the person she used to be before she came to Maxville –the kind of person she was before she met Warren, in fact- and became less and less communicative as the days went by. That's when Eve popped into the picture and started the path that would soon have Regina wanting to see her head on a pike.

She was having trouble with her wedding planner, Eve said, so she fired her and took charge of the whole operation, recruiting a very uninterested Regina as her aid. The past two months had been less and less about school –she had already taken her SATs, anyway, and done great by the way- and more about gown fittings, table charting, picking and sending invitations, cake testings, center pieces choosing –which left her sneezing for two whole days- and tons of endless wedding details that needed supervising. She'd hated it at first and since she spent most of her time with Eve she was the most likely recipient of her bad mood.

But as the days went by the chores she was assigned became more and more appealing and tolerable. Truth be told, it had nothing to do with the work she was doing; wedding invitations were still boring and uncanily complicated no matter where or when, but her mood had improved considerably and Regina admitted fully that it was all because of the triumph of Boom and Evelyn's love and the hope she saw in it. Hope that maybe Warren would stop being afraid and chose to be with her.

But time was so not on her side. It was the final week of school and she'd never see him again after prom... at least she wouldn't have any excuse to see him on a daily basis and she had the feeling that they'd either make up before it was really over or that would never ever happen.

Which brought her a whole new problem: how should she push Warren to be with her when she knew he'd hate that and would probably push him in the wrong direction, as far away from her as possible. It was all about subtleties, Regina believed, one thing she had never been good at. She preferred blunt, brutal honesty but unfortunately that would work as much as avoiding him.

So, every time she met him she forced herself to smile an easy smile and say hi, maybe brush her shoulder against his arm on the hallways or innocently touching his hand. Every time she did that she'd felt him twitch, definitely worth a mental pat on her shoulder. But her plan of playing cool and have him surrender didn't go much further, because after she'd gotten physical with him, he'd started avoiding her. She'd persevered, even after being given the cold shoulder, but somehow chasing after him became less appealing as she saw she wasn't making any progress. At last, she decided she'd been as obvious as she could ad he'd still run away from her like a dear in the woods. She'd tried, but the ultimate decision was up to him.

Regina was still hopeful. There's a reason why all teen movies show prom as the ultimate couple uniter, and she was certain that Warren would crack out his shell and go to her.

The world was pink, people were in love and happy. So, if Regina loved Warren and Warren loved Regina happiness was surely part of the equation. It was coming.

It'd better be.

"I just talked to the His Lordship and he's agreed to give me away if Lady Amy and Lord Trewlyn are appointed flower girl and ring bearer respectively. Luckily the Marchioness wasn't interested in being part of the bridal party," Eve said as she gave the last touches to the sitting chart. "I really can't see myself giving in on that one."

"Eve?" Regna asked tiredly, waiting on the phone to the clergy man to answer. "Why do you call your relatives by their titles?"

"Why, that's the way I was raised, m'dear," she laughed.

"So, you're having dinner and you'd actually say to your brother _would Your Lordship please pass the salt_?" Eve nodded. "You people are soo weird--, yes! Minister Keen, hi, I'm Regina Boomowski, calling to confirm on the Boomowski-Trewlyn wedding. I-- Can you hear me?" Regina moved around the room, nearer to the window. "I don'r think he ca hear me," she told Eve. "Hello? Minister Keen?"

"Go outside!" Eve whispered, and opened the door for her.

"Hello? Yes, Boomowski-Trewlyn, due to July 2nd," keeping her phone telekinetically stuck to her hear, Regina wrote the instructions the Minister was giving her on her notebook. "Okay, so they'll to be there tomorrow at four to talk about the wedding vows... Actually they've been pretty cryptic about them so no, I have no idea what they have in mind..." she stopped cold, the tall dark haired figure standing right in front of her on the pavement, as if he was repelled to cross over to the house's front lawn by some invisible force. "Minister Keen, I'm afraid something just came up. Can I call you back? Great, thanks. What the hell are you doing here?" Regina angrily demanded to know immediately after she hung up.

"Trespassing," Ray said as he teasingly stepped in the green lawn. At his sister distrustful look, he said. "Look, it's been four months, you have to talk to me eventually."

"Sorry, not there yet," ad she turned back and reached for the knob.

Only to find herself locked outside her own home. Eyes wide open, she turned to face the scum her brother was.

"Yeah, I asked Evelyn to do that," he confessed, not the least bit guilty. "All entrance to the house is secured and given that you know just how neurotic Boom is about the safety of his house it shouldn't surprise you that you can't let yourself in with the help of your powers."

"I don't have to listen to this," Regina stored to the back of the house.

Ray followed. "Like it or not, you're going to. I'm sick of this!"

"Then why don't you just walk away Royce, just like you did eight years ago!" she shot back as she uselessly tried the library's double door.

"I'm not going anywhere Reggie," he retorted, holding up his temper.

"Recent history seams to contradict you, bro," Regina snorted, choosing the laundry room's window as her next try. "You said that to me when I was ten years old right before you bailed on mom and dad. Forgive me if your word is shit to me."

"I'm not gonna apologize again for that--"

"Good, cuz I'm not interested--"

"Will you just shut up for a second?! Jeez, you're annoying!"

"Well, aren't you the bright one on the bunch," she retorted ironically.

"I'm trying to make things right here. Yes, I bailed on mom and dad and their sicko plan! I left you, I never searched you, you have issues, you're cloudy and twisted and your life has been miserable because of me!" Ray cried out, ten feet away from Regina. "But guess what? It ain't been no bed of roses for me either! I missed you! Not one day went by without me wondering how you were doing, if you needed anything...!" he closed the distance between them, only to have Regina step back against the wall. "I wanted to see you more than anything... and when I finally did..." he smiled sadly. "You were all grown up and I... I didn't..."

"What?" she snorted. "Didn't think I might want to know I had a brother? Didn't occurred to you I would like to know I wasn't alone? You could've come and find me," Regina spitted out, feeling the tears accumulate on the corners of her silver eyes. "I was alone for seven years, Ray! Have you any idea what that does to a girl?"

"I didn't know you were alone! Let me explain!" he cut in before Regina could interrupt him. "When I decided I didn't want in on mom and dad's plan I told Evelyn we had to run away, all three of us! Only that I'd go first so they'd focus on finding me and you two could get away and hide!" he was blanched, his whole life depending on his baby sister believing him. "Once things settled down, Eve would contact me and we'd get together, but she never did because mom made you two forget! Please, you have to believe me!"

Regina gulped and whiped the tears running down her cheeks. "You didn't forget me. Why didn't you look for me?"

"I tried but... I waited too long," he shook his head. "By the time I started looking, you were already on a foster home and when I broke in the police got me..."

"Wait, you were the one who broke in the Trueweathers'?"

"Your first foster home, yeah," he nodded. "Child services got me out of juvenile and this couple adopted me for some reason. I told them you were my sister, so child services kept me up to dated of the homes you were sent and they said that once I turned eighteen I could file for custody and I did first thing after I settled in Columbia but then you run away and I couldn't find you... I tried to contact Eve but she was out of reach..."

"That's no excuse you could've--"

"Look for you, yeah, you said that before," Ray's temper kicked in. "And I did. I found you in LA. You were fifteen; I followed you for a whole week, we sat right across each other in a diner and you didn't recognize me, but you did sensed me following you so you ran away and I lost track of you yet again," he grumbled, to then add grudgingly. "You're kinda good at that."

All Regina could utter was a short, hysterical laugh, sandwiched between the wall and her notebook slash shield like she was.

"And then two years later you were walking down the halls of Maxville Pres with Boom and Eve and you seamed... happy and safe and completely oblivious of my true identity and I..." Ray gulped down, piercing right into Regina's eyes with his electrical blue gaze. "I didn't dare bring any more pain to your life. Even if that meant I couldn't be a part of it."

Regina sighed and bit her lip. "And what about you sneaking up on my room and watching me and Warren?"

"That was actually a mistake," he said nervously. "I wanted to drop off a Christmas present and instead ended up witnessing something only years of therapy and lots of alcohol could erase from my memories."

"Well, there's always mom to turn for that," Regina joked weakly.

"Yeah, I guess..." Ray smiled. "I guess you're right."

"So what was my present?" she asked after a few moments of silence, genuinely interested and definitely with a stronger spirit.

"Here," he said as he dug his hand on his pant pocket. "I've been carrying with me ever since."

He handed her a thin silver chain with pear shaped diamond hanging from it. The necklace was so delicate she held it worshipfully, almost afraid of it breaking. It was the most beautiful thing no one had even given her.

"That's a real stone, by the way," Ray went by. "This old lady came to the E.R. a few months ago and no family member claimed it so..."

Regina's eyes flew wide open, away from her present and to fiercely pierce into Ray's. "I'm kidding," he clarified with an easy smile.

"Good, cuz I'm so not wearing no dead lady's left overs."

"Actually..." Ray corrected. "That necklace was kind of an ungetable get. Turns out lots of heroes want a piece of the Diamond Dame..."

Regina's left brow arched up in her forehead. "This is part of Diamond Dame? The infamous Diamond Dame?"

"Her forefinger. After polishing and cutting, of course."

"That's... creepy," she nodded. "And twisted," after a moment of beholding the gem, Regina determined with a grin. "I like it."

* * *

The last week of classes at Sky High was, especially for the seniors, all party. No teacher would dare try to insert any kind of knowledge that they hadn't already covered during the past year and pretending to revise subjects was not advisable either. After all, seniors just weren't interested and it a whole lot easier just let the week pass just the way they wanted it: partying.

Of course, that was tricky during the school hours –unless the class had unanimously decided to collectively skip school that day, as long as it was before hey got on the flying bus since the school was heavily protected against massive breakouts. But there were ways to have everyone happy during that last week, and they were somehow encouraged by the staff, like intensive Save the Citizen hours. On Monday and Tuesday alone Regina had already teamed with and against every single student of her class –sidekicks as well- and it was bound to happen again during the remaining two official school days. The only person she hadn't teamed with but only against was Warren, and if Boom didn't have anything to do with it she'd eat her shoe.

Now, she loved Boom for trying to protect her, but how was she supposed to have Warren back with her before school ended if the only kind of interaction they shared was violent and impersonal? She needed to create the scenario for the perfect make up, and what was better than a dangerous, dramatic battle field where she could "accidentally" get hurt and he'd not only rescue her but also carry her in his strong arms to a bright, warm sunset and ultimate happiness?

After picturing that up, Regina admitted she had been a little too surrounded by romantic stuff lately and she needed to stop listening Eve about that sort of thing. So, since that plan hadn't worked out so far, she moved on to the next one which included the kick ass parties that were taking place at night for the whole week. At every one of them she wore sexy clothes –not too sexy or Boom wouldn't let her out of the house- and prepared herself mentally, commanding the universe to make it that night _the_ night. After three in a row and Warren conspicuously missing every time, Regina's hopes were dangerously about to sink bottom.

On Wednesday morning, she was ready to bring on the artillery and since playing cool evidently didn't work with him it was time to be pushy. She'd confront him, force him to talk. Whatever it took, they were absolutely going to make up.

"You could lie to him," Megan suggested as they walked on the empty halls on first period. "Approach him and tell him he forgot something in your place or whatever. Oh, I know! Tell him you're pregnant! That'll make him talk to you for a while!"

"We haven't had sex in four months!"

"Then tell him you have an STD and it's obvious you got it from him," Megan shrugged.

"Yeah, that's a great way to patch things up," Regina rolled her eyes and proceeded to teasingly put in words Megan's silly idea in a extremely sing sang voice. "Warren, I have syphilis, who'd you slept with while you were with me...?" the loud slamming of a locker ahead on the hall cut her sentence short, and hastily stopped her heart, her breathing and herself. "Warren," she choked out, her suddenly pale face being mercilessly inspected by the figure of her intended standing right in hearing distance. "Hi."

Megan faked coughing to hide her hilarity attack and ducked in the nearest classroom, hence leaving Regina alone in the presence of Warren.

Who was, by the way, still expecting an explanation.

"It was a joke," she clarified quickly. "You know me. Joking, joking, joking!"

"Right," he accepted, his brow a notch higher on his forehead. He turned around and started to walk away.

"Wait!" Regina cried and started following him.

Warren on the other hand, was being as ungentlemanly as possible. He knew she had short legs, as well as the fact that when he was walking as hastily as he was right now, there was no way in hell that she could catch up. But did he slowed down and allowed her a few minutes of all the free time he had? No!

"You-- uh-- you left something in my bedroom!"

He turned, clearly confused. "I did?"

"Yeah," she nodded fiercely. "It was this-- this-- uh-- sock. Yes! You left a sock in my bedroom and you should come pick it up," she ended a little too cheerfully, grinning brightly.

It hit her right then that Warren was an omnilinguist and could tell with no effort what someone really meant. Realization made her blush under his entertained gaze.

"Well, I managed to stay okay without the sock," he replied, trying hard no to smile. "So you can just throw it away... or keep it. Whatever."

"But it's a very special sock!" she called after him as he walked away.

"Miss Boomowski?" she heard a woman's voice on her back. When she turned she saw Principal Powers. "Would you mind coming to my office for a sec? I would like to have a few words with you."

Her attempt to coerce Warren to retrieve his imaginary sock unfulfilled, Regina didn't see any reason why she shouldn't go with Powers. It's not like she had anything better to do with her time till Gym on the next period.

Powers led her through the hallways toward the part of the school which placed her office, teachers lounge and the administration desk. Taking special notice in pretending to be impressed by the elegant finesse the office was decorated in –the principal didn't know she had sneaked in twice during the musical last November – Regina looked around and sat in the appointed seat across the shinny glass desk. Powers, once settled on her high back chair, smiled brightly.

"Boomer told me you decided to take Pre Med at Johns Hopkins. Congratulations," she started. "Sky High prides in having the finest supers in all kinds of jobs, not just as heroes. Our hallways have been walked for year by legends of science, laws, politics... Did you know the former Mayor of Maxville was one of our alumni?" Regina shook her head. "Well, he was. A wonderful student and an example to the rest of the country of just how high the quality of our teaching program really is. I could name at least a dozen eminences in science, you know," she went on, winking. "Like Spencer Stuart, who I'm sure you know all about."

"He's the guy who first applied nanotech in reconstructive surgery," Regina nodded. "Stanford graduate, if memory serves."

"I'm impressed," Power's head bounced up and down, like she had a spring on her throat. "Anyway, what I wanted to talk to you about was graduation. As you know your GPA is pleasingly high," she smiled again, as if they were accomplices of something. "And so was your SATs grade."

"Yeah, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten into Hopkins," Regina replied. She might as well said _what is your point?_

"Given all this, and the extra credit you have for assisting Mr. Medulla all year long and helping the imprisonment of eighty three of the three hundred villains that got away after the alien attack, it's no surprise that you rank among the top of the class."

Regina held the woman's stare, waiting for her to reach her point once and for all.

"Now, I'm sure you're aware that the Valedictory address is given by the highest ranked student... Well, in our case that would be Celeste Morwellan, but since she's agoraphobic she has refused from the beginning to be Valedictorian. Which left us with the second rank, Warren Peace."

Now, that was something Regina didn't know. It actually shocked her. How was it possible that she loved him but didn't know he was seccond best of their class? How could she missed that? True, he never mentioned and they never really talked all that much but still...

"Mr. Peace agreed moths ago to do the speech, as long as his rank remained the same by the time graduation finally arrived..." she opened a red folder that had been resting on her desk and removed a sheet of paper from it. "He's actually been working very hard on the Valedictory," she commented fondly. "He submitted it three weeks ago for evaluation."

Regina accepted the sheet the principal was holding out for her and started reading it.

"Why are you showing this to me?"

Power's smile flinched momentarily. After a long pause, she admitted "Warren Peace no longer qualifies as Valedictorian."

"His GPA dropped?" Regina asked.

"No," another pause. "He rejected the Agency's full scholarship for Kent's Institute."

It was Regina's time to pause. "What's that got to do with--?"

"The Agency is one of our biggest sponsors," Powers explained quickly. "They give us heavy funds, make sure our technology is the best so our students can be the best and most importantly they are in charge of the rotation of Sky High and it's security."

"So what you're saying is Warren quit and they are pushing you to remove him from an academic title which he'd earned in all fairness?"

"His rank depended on his grades as much as in his extra credit he got for working with them as an intern," Powers said warningly, sensing Regina's temper bubbling up.

"That still doesn't mean he hasn't done the job he was asked to do and frankly, I don't see you should punish him for quitting," Regina retorted every bit angry as she sounded.

"He shamed this institution by bailing on them after all the money they invested on him," she went on. "When he accepted the intern job he declared he wanted to go to Kent's on a full ride. He breached the contract."

"A verbal contract, I'm sure, since he was a minor then and therefore couldn't assume that responsibility," Regina shot back. "And so what if he changed his mind?"

"He was supposed to be trained by them and Kent's to become a great hero--"

"He already is a great hero, unless you didn't notice he was a really essential asset to our little catch the villain game last February."

Principal Powers clearly didn't enjoy being talked back from one of her students. Well, boo hoo, she should have thought about that before daring bring Regina Boomowski with that particular dilemma.

"None of this is relevant to the actual reason I called you here this morning," Powers started again after a long pause of knife slicing, tense, awkward silence from the two of them. "As it happens, you rank just bellow Warren Peace, so I hereby inform you that on Friday morning, you will be giving the Valedictory address, with all the honors and obligations that carries."

"What? No," she refused, shaking her head. "I don't want to, and even If I did, there's no time for me to write a speech."

"That's not a problem," Powers, smiling brightly again, waved that thought aside. "The board approved Peace's speech, so you'll be giving his."

Regina's jaw set stubbornly, accompanied by the irritated arch of brow she herself had learnt from the one they wanted her to plagiarize.

"I am not standing in front of a crowd of students and proud parents giving a Valedictory address I don't want, earned or wrote."

"You can--" Powers quickly looked for an alternative. "Write your own, if you want, just make sure it's like the one I give you."

"No," Regina repeated. "I won't do that to Warren."

Regina thought she was stubborn, yet she was up for a rude awakening. "I'm afraid you'll have to. Otherwise I'll find myself forced to reveal to your uncle the content of your sessions with Mrs. Ferraro, including all the dirty secrets that bind you to Mr. Peace. Not to mention I'll also press charges for breaking into my office and using my computer. Oh, lets not forget this will all be included in your record," she smiled again, only this time her eyes were ice cold. "We'll see if Hopkins still have you with such recommendations."

"How--?" Regina was too shocked, and scared, by the principal's threat to put two words together.

"How do I know all this? Well, Mrs. Ferraro might have sworn confidentiality to you, but your sessions were still being recorded and supervised by me."

Regina was having trouble breathing. It was just so bizarre, being blackmailed by the school principal to give a lousy speech. And she really didn't want to. She wanted Warren back with her, but if she was stealing his rank, his speech... He wouldn't want to be with the person who did that to him.

But if she refused even more strongly than she had so far the only thing she'd accomplish was to shame them both, because Powers would certainly make sure everybody found out about their "dirty secrets", as she put it. And Boom... how could she ever look at him in the eye if all the things she'd said in the confidence of Mrs. Ferraro were ever told to him? She knew that, while she had been missing, Warren had told him about their relationship, but she knew for a fact he hadn't been specific about all the thing they did and _where_ they did it.

So she was stuck. She didn't want to cause him any pain, but she also wanted to protect her reputation. And it wasn't just that. There were some things she'd told Mrs. Ferraro that were really private, stuff about her parents and the foster homes and the years she'd been alone...

She left the office guided by Powers –whom Regina had lost all respect for- not thinking, not hearing, only acknowledging to have accepted the Valedictorian title and clutching the sheet of paper with Warren's words.

It was over.

* * *

"Okay, how about this one?" Will said as he emerged, finally, from the changing booth wearing his fifth tuxedo choice.

Warren sighed tiredly. He should be used to this by now. After four years of friendship with Will and the many dances the school had hosted, it was kind of a tradition that they'd go pick their tuxedos the day before, in the company of Zach and Ethan, of course. Every time they went the same happened: Warren would choose quickly, Will would be undecided over the dozed different tuxes the shop attendant would show him, and Ethan and Zach would fight over who got to wear the ugliest freakishest thing available. Before Homecoming they had fought over an uniquely hideous pair of cuff-links with an eagle motive, which would spread its wings when you pressed its head and shine in the darkness. Today, however, they were fighting over a fluorescent white shirt.

"It's a blue tux with a white shirt and a red tie, just like the other four that preceded it," Warren pointed out irritably. "The only difference is whether some have one or more buttons, notch or peak lapel, tail or no tail. Have you any idea how irrelevant that is? Just pick one!" he barked, having Will seek refuge behind the curtain of the changing booth. "And make it fast."

"Jeez, aren't you cheery today," Will said ironically as he changed back into his normal clothes. "I wonder what has you this jumpy? Hum, let's see, could it be because the school has officially named you a pariah, after so many years of your hard work? Or maybe it's the fact that your future education and altogether livelihood is uncertain?" he poked his head outside the booth to see Warren's reaction. As expected, it was inscrutable. "No, that can't be it," he went one, head back inside, with the same tone. "Surely, it has to be Regina Boomowski's fault. After all, how dared she to imply that you're being a fool by letting her go when you don't want to and actually tried to do something to correct the situation? _And_ she did it as subtle as possible! Where on Earth has honesty gone to?"

"You're pushing it, Stronghold," Warren warned.

"I know," Will retorted triumphal. "Don't complain. You had it coming. And," he added keeping laughter from his voice, knowing Warren would stand his mocking much longer if Will's hilarity suddenly burst out. "You should prepare yourself for tomorrow night, cuz Layla and Magenta aren't gonna let you rest until you go and talk to Regina. And you know how insistent they can bee..." he waited, and waited for Warren's reply, which never came. "Warren?" he called out, poking his head out again, to find his friend missing from his previous spot.

Will sighed. Aparently Warren's patience wasn't as stretchy today as it usually was.

In the lobby, Will's hypothesis was proving correct. Pacing up and down with his rented tux over his shoulder, Warren paid very little attention to Zach and Ethan, who seamed to have already settled the shirt issue in favor of Ethan –Zach could, after all, glow with no problem- and were now trying to decide if matching fluorescent shoelace would look good on both of them, no matter the color of the shoe.

His head felt like a nebula, like he couldn't have one single straight thought because it would diverge to that thing which he didn't want to be thinking of. Or better said, she whom he didn't want to be thinking of.

_You're losing me anyway__._ Those were the last words she'd said to him, not counting all the hellos and byes uttered unilaterally by her and yesterday's fruitless attempt to lure him to her home. Warren was aware that he was losing her, and he was also aware that it was killing him. Regina seamed to be very optimistic, though, seemingly sure that he'd change his mind after all those months and took the chance of being with her despite the fact that it terrified him the possibility of losing her ever again in the future.

It froze him. Warren Peace, a pyro, was frozen.

"It's quite a selection they have here, don't you think?" he heard someone said on his right. Turning, Warren saw a tall man, probably on his fifties by the white stroke red hair and all the deep expression lines on his neck and face. Still, the man looked remarkably well, he had no excess of fat that his suit could let out.

"I guess," Warren replied.

The man nodded, still standing next to Warren, inspecting the tuxedos in display. Taking better notice of the man's outfit Warren realised it was more than just a nice suit; it was black, perfectly tailored, probably Italian, with thin white stripes. The shirt was a very light shade of yellow with white collar and cuffs, and the orange, tone on tone satin tie matched both on color and motive with the also perfectly folded handkerchief on his chest pocket. The man's hair was styled to the back of his head, showing off his big forehead and bushy red brows.

His posture was unnerving too, not because he was intimidating, but because Warren was sure he could intimidate him easily, yet the man chose not to and opted for a more open expression, which in fact was very shielding to the man's actual purpose.

And Warren was sure he had one, and he had the feeling it had something to with him. He got all that, however, without using his powers, only with the help of common sense and the years of solely reading people.

So, what was this evidently rich, intimidating man doing in a renting tuxedo store in Maxville, talking to him? He surely didn't do his shopping there.

"My name is Lawrence Anstruther-Fanleigh and I would like to have a word in private with you," he introduced himself, holding up his hand for Warren to shake.

He accepted the greeting. "From Anstruther-Fanleigh Corp.?"

"The one and only," he smiled. "Now, Mr. Peace, what do you say if have a cup of coffee while I explain you the reason of my visit?"

"I'm with my friends... I'm supposed to give them a ride."

"My driver is waiting outside, I'm sure he can take them to their destination with no problem."

Warren narrowed his eyes. "With all due respect, Mr. Anstruther-Fanleigh, but why are you interested in talking to me?"

He chuckled. "Every bit the Warren Peace I was told I'd find. Distrustful, meticulous, bold," Anstruther smiled again. "I have spent a lot of time studying you, my boy."

"But why?"

"Did I forget to add insistent to the list?" he joked. "Well, you can't expect me telling you in a place we could so easily be heard, don't you think? But I suppose a heads up won't hurt," he grinned. "Let's just say Firefox has a proposition for you," he winked.

Warren didn't ave to think twice. He turned to Zach and Ethan and told them they had a car waiting outside for them when they were ready to go and that he had to leave. They wanted an explanation –it wasn't every day that Warren would disappear with a complete stranger- but they didn't get one from him. That would have to wait.

They found a coffee house only one block away from the shop. It was busy and noisy inside, and even though they found an empty table it was still difficult to move among the crowd of tables. Yet the scenario seamed to please Anstruther immensely. What didn't please Warren was the fact that everyone was staring at them, due to the simple fact that Warren and Anstruther were the oddest couple possible. When was the last time a seemingly successful executive and a seemingly bad boy had sat together to have a cup of coffee?

But they did, and eventually they stopped staring. Until then, Anstruther did nothing but talk about irrelevant stuff, like his flight, the traffic and the significant weather change between Maxville and his home town, Seattle. Once it was certain the people around them wasn't paying them any attention and the waitress deposited to coffees in front of them and left, the conversation changed to the topic Warren interested in.

"Firefox is one of the few heroes that has kept his identity a secret since he started," Warren began. "Why come out to me now?"

"Because Firefox is approaching retirement," Anstruther shrugged. "Not necessarily now, mind you, but in a couple of years he won't be able to provide the care and protection Seattle expects and deserves. It's time for he to train a successor."

Warren kept silent. He felt he shouldn't be asking questions when he didn't have the whole picture drawn up for him.

"Of course, the selection process wasn't easy. One thing my company allows me are the resources to collect all kind of information I need and for the past five years I have been receiving regular reports and monitoring over twenty different pyrokinetics around the country. As the years went by, some of them were disposed of since I didn't considered they fit the criteria, and so on the number of potentials decreased progressively," he explained. After taking a long sip of his coffee, he said. "I was looking for someone who was brave, but not foolish, smart, but not obnoxious, strong, willful. A hero with a vision," he smiled, surely remembering his younger years as Firefox. "Yet at some point, they let me down. Either they were unwilling to learn or change their attitudes or they simply contented on being ordinary. I thought, when the aliens came, that I'd see them finally on action, in a situation that was beyond my hands and control, so it was up to them to cope and impress me. A lot of them did, and here I was with still five potentials and running out of time," he sighed. "But then the oddest thing happened. You see, the one quality I was seeking the most was vision, and I believed I could only prove if they had it by speaking with them my self. I was proved wrong," he chuckled. "When the Agencies started giving scholarships and having contracts signed I was sure I had lost any chance I had to find someone to carry on my legacy. And then I receive the report that Warren Peace rejected Maxville's Agency because he didn't believe that was the right place for him to be the kind of hero he wanted to be."

He reached out for Warren's arm and patted it strongly, looking every bit as proud as he sounded. "After all that time and effort, I found the hero I wanted."

That was the time to start asking questions, Warren told himself. The only problem was he didn't remember how to speak.

"It's okay to be speechless," he assured him. "Actually, it suites me wonderfully, since I would like to explain you what are exactly the requirements of the job before you make a decision. After all, should you say yes, your whole life will be altered."

Warren just nodded. That was as far as he could communicate with another human being for the moment.

"First of all, education. I expect my successor to work in my company, since that would give you freedom to attend to your trainings and saving the city without having to report to someone who doesn't know how important you are to the safekeeping of Seattle. And no one likes a homeless hero," he added. "This way I am assured that my successor is living under a decent roof and will always be available. Which leaves us back with the whole education matter. My employées are the best, and since my successor will be also my protegé, people will expect you to be a graduate of one of the finest business schools in America. Wharton School is keeping a place for whomever I chose."

"I didn't apply to Wharton," Warren said huskily. "And I couldn't afford it."

"You don't need applying when Larry Anstruther-Faleigh is close friend of the Dean of Admissions and has a long history of big checks ending up in that school. And don't worry about the money," he snorted as if doing so was sacrilege. "If you decide to accept my proposition, you will be on a full ride, including a bulky allowance till the moment you start on the company, and even then you'll do so under my protection. That's the meaning fo the word pretegé."

"Another matter of importance is your training. Now, while you're off to school, you will be focusing on your grades and practicing a double life. You cannot for an instant make anyone believe you don't belong to that circle or that you're just biding your time till something greater happens," his tone turned severe. "You can't go through collage like you have through High School. You cannot be an outcast. Outcasts are noticed, and you have to fit in. No one can know you are leading a double life. No matter how tired you are, you do not show it and become part of your group. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Warren nodded.

"That is the reason why your actual hero training per se will start after you have your degree and you move to Seattle," Anstruther went on. "Of course, you can't let yourself get rusty on the mean time, but no saving civilians. We don't want anyone adding two and two, don't we?"

"And last but not least, your appearance has to be changed," Anstruther pointed out. Noticing Warren's eyes shooting up in an unhappy fashion, he quickly amended his words. "Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the leather jacket, the long dyed hair and the flaming tattoos. If you want, your alter ego can look just like that. But going back to the whole fitting in requirement..."

He let the sentence die, realising that was probably a soft spot for Warren. He was, after all, asking him to change almost everything about himself and the way he would have to live his life from that moment on if he choose to become his successor. The real question, Warren thought, was whether all that was worth it to be the hero he wanted to be.

And he believed he could accomplish that if he accepted the proposal. Long story short, Anstruther was asking him to be his replacement once he retired, and that would happen relatively soon. On the mean time, he would be going to a great school, get a great job which would't interfere on his saving the city and would have the opportunity to learn from one of the biggest super heroes of America. And that hero had chosen him from a bunch of other candidates. Anstruther saw in him what Seattle needed. Could Warren cope with that?

"Once your training begins," he continued. "You will be receiving so from me and from other masters I trust, to make sure you don't miss anything, and it'll involve physical training, power management, strategy and intelligence... basically all you'll need to know. You'll join me in Firefox's outings to town, so that the people can get to know you and trust you once you take over. I see you wear black and red mostly, that shouldn't be a problem. And I'll leave the choosing of your name to you naturally; you'll be the one who has to live with it..."

The proposition was ideal. Warren would be enheriting a city to save and would get to help on the national security too, all depending on whether he was willing to change and start living a double life for ever or not.

"I'll have to remove my tattoos," he finally said mildly.

Anstruther grinned triumphal. "I'm sure we can find a way to cover them," he suggested. "It's amazing what science can do this days, and I admit that the first thing I thought when I saw them was that those could be a great trademark for a super hero."

* * *

Friday Morning caught Regina acting in a mechanical fashion. She got up, stepped into the shower, left it, sat in front of her vanity for the stylist –Evelyn's idea- to do his magic on her hair, which resulted on a hair cut and some sort of done-up with lots of loose ringlets. It was nice, it showed off her neck and it wouldn't get in the way of the billowy orange and blue cape she'd be wearing over her sundress. Eve had tried to convince her to wear some floral chiffon dress with beaded stripes, but Regina had stood firm on that point. She had decided to wear simple, her selection being a light gray strapless, with a natural waist marked by a black sash, see-through lace around the hem and vintage embroidery, together with black leather ballet flats with beaded gray pearl ruffle at the front. She was comfortable and she looked nice, but none of that mattered to her.

Still on mechanical fashion, she flew to Sky High with Boom, Eve, Ray and her grandparents in the bus along with three other families, left them to go find their seats while she searched for her friends and received her cape and cap. All caps were the same for boys and girls: light blue with an orange cord. The capes, on the other hand, were divided by gender; he girls got to wear bright orange with a single light blue stripe around the hem and the boys the inverse combination. The cape was tied around the neck by a lace and was left to lay over the shoulders, leaving the front of the body uncovered and reached down and finished on the ankles.

The lining up announced the begging of the ceremony. Then, all the graduates marched down the aisle in between the rows of proud family members as the cheered, to finally seat on their appointed places and hear out the endless speeches and pep talks the members of the staff had prepared. Regina didn't get a word of any of it, except for Booms speech, mostly directed to the work as a team they had learnt and which would help them all though their career as heroes.

Time and people went by. Each and one of the student got called up to the stage to get their diploma and photo taken with the principal. Some tripped on their capes, some stole microphone time and made jokes and had to be forced off the stage. And little by little, Regina's time was coming to an end.

She and Warren weren't going to make up, it just wasn't going to happen. All the hopes and wishes she'd harvested for the past months were gone, vanished. And now she had to give the final punch. Who was the guy who had said that a true friend stab you in the front instead of the back? Well, whoever that was, was proven that day that not only good friends do that. Apparently, people in love fell into that category too.

"And now, to give the Valedictory address we have a very special student," Principal Powers told the audience, smiling carelessly, up in her high podium. "She hasn't been with us for long, but she has managed to squeeze herself into a very special part of our hearts. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Regina Boomowski."

It was old news that she had replaced Warren; it had been announced yesterday at lunch and most of the shock and whispering was done by now. Still, Regina knew the cheering wasn't for real. She didn't deserve it, after all.

The football team were smilling, cheering and beaming, at boom's command of course, with the possible exception of Colin, Mike and Kyle. Boom was the loudest of the parent crowd, and he wasn't even sitting with them, since he had to take his place with the rest of the staff. Nevertheless, they comforted her, along with Megan, who had even stood up to applaud. But the only one Regina could think right then she didn't dare to look and see how he had reacted. She did felt his glare follow upon her, whether it was angry or not she didn't know, but felt inclined to believe it was.

As Regina went up the short stairs –watching her steps, tripping and falling in her graduation day was just too much bad luck against her- she tried her best to keep her smile as grimaceless as possible, but boy, wasn't that hard. At last, Regina completed her short walk without falling down on her but and without scaring those with a frontal view of her.

She should be feeling accomplished and proud of herself. Her family seemed to unanimously believe she deserved it, that it was okay if she stepped in for Warren. So why did she have to feel like she'd had something alive for breakfast and it was now trying to come up her throat? Why couldn't she detach from what she felt for Warren and just give the damn speech?

"Members of the board, teachers, parents and last and definitely least since we're on bottom of the list, students," she breathed out, ignoring the sheet of paper with Warren's words. "I was only informed that I'd be this year's Valedictorian two days ago, because of a decision of the Board to remove Warren Peace for what it seems to me an arbitrary reason. I refused, naturally, and was then blackmailed to accept. I'm not finished," she looked at Principal Powers, who had furtively approached her from the back the moment she got the drift of the speech. "You use blackmail, I'm better at manipulation, so sit back," she commanded, then stared at the entire staff, Board members and Agency heads. "All of you," having the job done, Regina sighed and faced the crowd once again. "I was given, nevertheless, the original speech Warren had written, which I'm sure he spent endless hours in. Why did they do that? Because they liked the words but not the author. They also told me that, should I chose to, I could write my own address as long as it followed down the same subjects. The right subjects, I believe Principal Powers put it."

"I'm supposed to tell you that there's good and evil in this world, and that you've been... _built_ to be the good guys with the white hat, selfless, caring, noble, never flinching about saving a life and being always the biggest person, and that because of this amazing values one day the world will be eradicated of evil people if only we struggle and persevere and are patient," she had no idea what she was doing. The words just came out of her mouth, completely improvised. It almost scared her. "But here's the catch," Regina continued. "For this to be true, we would have to live in a black and white world, and we don't," she shook her head, uttering something halfway between laughing and snorting. "Our world is gray, different shades of gray, some lighter than the others, but still undecided gray. A mass murderer can love his family as much as religious person can demand for death penalty for the criminals in the name of justice. Individuals and society today have gray values and they themselves are the center of them. You've been trained for a world that doesn't exist, because even in this institution that strives on fairness and black and white values, gray strains them. That's the reason Warren Peace isn't up here today giving the right Valedictory address, because by standing by what he believed and wanted he got repealed by the personal interests of the Agency and the school."

Everyone was silent, not missing a word Regina was saying. She was still nervous, though. She had no idea what was going to happen after she was done with the speech. More than anything, she wanted to find Warren's eyes among the crowd, but just like that one time on the karaoke bar, she didn't dare.

"I'm not perfect for this world. I'm gray, cloudy and twisted, I'm exactly the kind of people you'll have to face when you try to save them. I watch out for myself, I'm not likable and I don't like most people, I'm judgemental, my values and priorities are upside down and let's face it, I have bad luck," she half laughed. "Recently I was too stubborn to realize I was in love, I was selfish and kept it to my self, and when I finally decided to do something about it I got abducted by aliens. I mean, isn't that the most stupid thing you have ever heard? Isn't it the most self-centered thing someone could feel? Aliens didn't just abducted me, they took Will Stronghold too, stole all of our powers and attacked Earth. Yet did I care about all of this? No! The only thing I care is that I don't have a boyfriend because they took me away! Who does that?" she whispered. "You know how my mother is in prison?" she asked, not really expecting an answer. "She's a murderer, and a villain. And I wish she was free. Free, potentially plotting for world domination and more slaughter, but free, with me. And I wish this because I'm selfish, an I'm not sorry. This world is plagued by cloudy and twisted people like me..."

She gulped, her eyes stinging because she was trying to swallow down the tears. Regina bit her lower lip.

"Maybe it isn't such a bad thing to be black and white," a bright smile lighted her face. "So, it's up to you... Be the good guys. Save us. We can't do it alone."

* * *

Prom didn't take place in the gym, but on the campus. A fake solid floor was settled over the green grass for dancing with round tables all around it. Everything was white, from the tablecloths and the chairs to the dancing floor and the solid bubbles that flew around the entire area providing dim illumination. Steve Karnical had been asked by the prom committee to provide imaginary music for them and Katherine Snowflake had volunteered to set an ice fountain with running water and several other never melting ice sculptures to decorate the tables. Layla Williams had also been summoned as help and so they had interactive plants growing among the tables. The footage of dancing lights was suspended in midair too by a devise Regina had been working on with the rest of her Mad Science class. Everything was perfect.

Well, almost everything.

"Five says he grabs her but," Kyle said. He was sitting next to Regina, passing on a glass of spiked punch.

"Ten says she hits him in the back of the head and pinches his nipple if he does," Regina added.

Two minutes later, Regina and Colin were paying Kyle, and then Kyle and Colin were paying Regina as they saw Mike and Megan, dancing at a relative distance from them, fulfill their betting.

"This thing is almost over," Colin commented as he checked his watch. "We should get going in a while if we wanna get the real party started."

"I'm gonna go get more punch while you losers sit here and watch all the happy people in the dance floor," Regina said as she got up.

"Okay," they said at once.

The beverages were across the dance floor, so she had to round it to get there. She drew many looks as she did so, and the strangest thing was that she wasn't uncomfortable about it. Many of the attention, she knew, was due to the speech which, unexpectedly, was actually well received by the students, teachers and parents. The only ones who didn't like it were, duh, Principal Powers and the Agency gu who had Warren removed from Valedictorian. The rest cheered. Loudly.

But Regina also admitted that she looked absolutely gorgeous that night in her strapless mermaid dress, so she was all in to put some of the guilt for all the staring in that fact too.

It was actually divided in two parts at the natural waist. The top was silver with pleated details and straight neckline and from the waistline down it was the darkest shade of gray possible, so much it looked black on the dim light. There wasn't even an inch left between the fabric and her skin –a fact both Boom and Ray regretted- except from her knees till the floor, where the skirt opened to give her a nice width, yet not overly done. The heels weren't visible, but she sure as hell felt them compressing her toes. Still, they were too pretty to be mad at them.

Her hair was styled in a similar way as it had been that morning, only she now had a bejewelled headband to go with it . As for jewelry, she was wearing the necklace Ray had given her – which by the way had given powers to Megan when she stood near Regina- and earrings and a bracelet her grandparents had given her for Christmas which happened to match with the necklace.

Before she reached the beverages table Regina felt someone pulling her arm in a gentle, almost reverential way. She saw Warren was responsible when she turned around.

"Hi," he said. Regina was supposed to return the hi, but for some reason she was unable to do so. She had been sure it was over between them. Fate had proved to be nasty and malicious and unwilling to bring them together for the past months, was it possible that now it was giving them a chance? "Would you like to dance?"

Some slow song was being played then, which meant slow motion and lots of bodily contact. Yes! Go fate!

He held her hand and led her to the centre of the dance floor. He looked great, Regina noticed, and the dim light improved his already perfect features and complexion. The tux was black, no surprise there, but it was still becoming. The jacket was opened, so she could see the burgundy red satin vest underneath it, and the black tie was a little undone, which gave him a careless dandy look.

When she was finally in his arms she couldn't help sighing in relief, as if she'd just returned there from a long journey and that was right were she belong. She was aware that she was holding him a little too tight, but then again, Warren didn't seamed to mind it. In fact, he held her tighter and leaned down his head so his cheek could rest easily on the top of her head.

"It's a beautiful dress," he complimented her.

"Thanks," Regina said with her eyes closed, enjoying the peace she felt hearing his heartbeat under his chest. "Oscar De La Renta made it specially for me, you know."

"Get out of here."

"I'm serious," she laughed. "He owed Eve a favour."

"So that's how you get your dresses?" he continued the joke.

"I still had to pay for it."

"How?" he asked, really interested. He had noticed in th past that she owed several expensive clothes, and he didn't believe Boomer's salary could afford that much.

She buried her face in his chest like a guilty child. "I never told you, but... I'm kinda rich."

Warren looked at her silver eye and arched a brow. "How rich?"

"Really, really rich. My mom's parent's had this company she sold out when they died and when she went to prison I got it all," she explained mildly and resumed her previous position. "Of course now I have to share it with Ray..."

"The dress you were wearing at Homecoming wasn't dessigner's," he pointed out.

"How'd you remember?" it was her turn to raise her head and will him to look at her.

"I remember everything about you," he confessed.

"Well, you're right," she answer his previous question, with a smile. "It was a copy. I didn't want anyone to know how loaded I was"

"And now?"

"Now I don't care what people think."

The song ended and another started. This one Regina knew.

"The Valedictory today..." Warren started. "It was real good, Reg. I couldn't have done it any better."

"You deserved it," she countered, shaking her head.

"I never cared about it," he retorted. "Besides, my speech was crap."

"But it was right. That's all that matters."

"Yours was righter," he went on. "Even when you started pointing out every single one of your faults," he chuckled.

She laughed too.

"So what are you going to do now Kent's out of the picture?" Regina asked.

"I'm--" He stopped and looked away. "Not sure yet," he lied.

"Don't worry," she comforted him, caressing his cheek. He closed his eyes in delight as she did so. Regina leaned closer to his face, standing on her toes. "Warren--"

"Reg--" He stopped her before she kissed him. "I still can't."

She understood, she really did, at last, and this time the rejection didn't hurt as much as it had before. She loved him and wanted to be with him, but his happiness and peace of mind were more important that her selfish desires. She got that now. Warren was broken, and he needed to fix himself before starting something with her.

Regina smiled lovingly, which confused him for a moment, before she rested her head back on his shoulder.

"It's over," Warren determined whispering in her ear.

Regina shivered and kept her eyes shut, her small soft hand drawing circle in the back of his head. She totally agreed with him. "So over," she breathed out.

_Don't need a whore  
I don't need no booze  
Don't need a virgin priest  
But I need someone I can cry to  
I need someone to protect  
Making love and breaking hearts  
It is a game for youth  
But I'm not waiting on a lady_

_I'm just waiting on a friend  
I'm just waiting on a friend  
I'm just waiting on a friend..._  
_  
_

_

* * *

_

**Soooo.... any thoughts???? how was my ending? good? bad? Please review!! all of you who ha read this story and haven't reviewed not once, this is the best of times to redeem yourself!**_  
_


	25. Epilogue: After these ten years

**Epilogue: After these ten years.**

"Sweetie, it's time to wake up," Dr. Isis Reynolds whispered as she gently rubbed Regina's shoulder and arm.

Ever so attentive, Regina gave no sign of coming out of her dreams, as Isis kept trying and trying to wake her up. She'd just shrug off and turn her head to the other side over the pile of charts she'd been using as a pillow. Isis even tried paging her but the loud beeping –and it was really loud- was useless. At last, tired and annoyed, Isis grabbed the pile of charts and abruptly removed it from under Regina's head which, as gravity would have it, hit the desk. That sure woke her up.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Isis faked innocent tone no longer fooled Regina.

"What time is it?" she said as she rubbed her forehead.

"Seven o'clock."

"Seven...?!" Regina angrily closed her eyes and crossed her arms over the desk and placed her head on them to reasume her sleep. "Why'd you wake me? My shift doesn't start until nine."

"Exactly. When was the last time you went home?"

Regina had to actually think that before answering. "Monday."

"Well, it's Thursday morning," Isis made her sit up by pushing her shoulder to the back of the chair.

"And your point is...?"

"You need a shower," she went on severely. "And sleeping in your own bed for a change would do you a world of good."

"Fine," Regina stretched out and stood up. "I just have to go get my--"

Isis held up a silver, over stuffed shoulder bag. "Go home. And no detours. If you so much as stop by to check on a patient, I'll know and I'll be mad."

"You're a bully, you know that?" Regina commented mildly as she took her shoulder bag and left the lab.

Regardless of the big mistake she'd made by waking Regina so early, Isis was actually one of Regina's good friends, and that was the only reason that allowed her to be a bully and get away with it. She was the first to welcome her and made her feel at home when she'd first came working at Reid Memorial for her residency six months ago. Isis had recently completed her residency and was now and brand-new fertility doctor whom Regina was actually appointed to work with, even when the specialty she persueded was genetics. But, as her sponsor had said, covers were a visionary's best friends.

He had found her at Johns Hopkins Hospital after someone on his staff had mentioned something about her research, and he'd offered her a place in his hospital and all the founding she needed to get her investigation going. At first Regina had been reluctant to leave Hopkins; after all, she'd done both her undergraduate and graduate degrees there and had worked on the hospital since her second year of Med School. Leaving them, the people she'd worked with for so long, just didn't feel right.

But the offer was so good! At Hopkins, she only had limited time to dedicate to her investigation, with all the hours and night shifts she was required to do before she got in full time to her specialty. Had Regina stayed there, she would've had to wait for at least three more years before her research got the best of her, and after all that time passed, who knew if someone got ahead of her and stole her idea? But there were two important reasons to consider: one to leave Baltimore and the other not to go to Seattle. Leaving Baltimore also meant leaving Chip Smith behind, her stalker, and she for one was all in for that. On the other side, going to Seattle meant risking the chance of seeing Warren again, and that she didn't want. But Chip Smith was a threat to her life, when Warren was only a threat to her heart. Wisely, Regina preferred getting emotionally hrt that dying out some freak's obsetion over her. She could, and would, successfully hide from Warren Peace.

At Reid Memorial she'd be continuing her residency along with a fertility physician, which would keep her in touch with the genetic part of her research, since her job was mostly about DNA check out of the future parents and the identification of genetic diseases on the samples. She was also required to process all the samples they got on the sperm bank to check none of them carried any genetic malfunction and so the chances of a baby conceived by any of those samples to get a genetic disease was cut to half.

So, aside from the clinic duty all doctors were required to fill during the week, Regina spent most of her time on the lab and helping women get with child. The great part of her job description was that night shifts were rarely set upon her, since women and couples never came in the middle of the night with the sudden need to get pregnant. So, Regina had the nights free, and she spent them all at the lab.

That was the interesting part of her job. Her research covered the investigation of the super gene, where it came from, how and why it manifested only in some individuals. She received supers for her trial, in the most absolute secret, took samples from them during the day with the cover of them wanting to know whether they carried any disease or not, run tests and basically did everything she could to understand the gene. The rest of the hospital staff knew she was running a secret trial, but since Regina was sponsored directly by the owner of the hospital and her research had yet to interfere with the rest of her work, there was nothing they had to frown upon.

The investigation was going well, considering she had only started it recently. She had lots of hypothesis about the way some powers manifested in determinate individuals and not in others, and how a child with both super parents could get one of their powers, both, neither or one entirely different. It wasn't random, Regina was positively sure, but to prove it and to finally be able to look at a person's DNA and say exactly which power he or she would get, Regina first had to find a way to isolate the gene. She knew where it was located on the DNA sequence but that was as far as she'd reached in the time she'd been researching. But she had patent her discovery and it had been announced on several medical journals, keeping secret of her identity. Once she was ready to come out, she would, but on the meantime she preferred working quietly.

Her apartment was luckily only ten minutes away of the hospital, which meant she could even drop by while she was on call and wait there to be paged if she wanted, which she didn't. Her apartment was nice and comfortable and warm, but it was empty. She didn't need a room mate to share rent so the only connection she had with human beings were he hospital staff and her sponsor. Going to her apartment bothered her, depressed her, even, so Regina avoid it as much as she could.

The building was brand new, built according to the green friendly politics that had been passed on by the Congress in the past years. The water system, for instance, was divided in two: one for personal cleanse and the other for house cleaning. They both had special chemicals added to the water –in fact, it wasn't really water, but some sort of solution produced industrially-; the whole point of that was keeping the potable water strictly for consume only, hence saving up all the water used for non-necessary uses. The kitchen water had self-cleaning detergent and germ free rinse added and the bathroom water was soapy with skin care additives. The potable water was distributed according to her needs every two weeks.

Before stepping in the shower, Regina took off her brown colored contact glasses and brushed her jaw length straight hair. To think once it had reached down past her waist...

Two minutes later, a beeping started ringing. The central unit recognized which room she was in and the flat black button easily disguised on the black marble shower tiles fixed to the wall next to her started glowing. Deciding to take the call, Regina pressed the button.

"I'm in the shower," she said. "Call back in ten."

"Can't," Isis voice said, like she was in the room with Regina. It was all due to the amazing sound system the apartment came with. "There was a kid diagnosed with meningitis in a daycare down town. They're bringing them all here and we need all the doctors available. Be here in fifteen."

Fortunately, the communication ended before Isis could hear the loud outburst of nasty words coming out of Regina's mouth.

* * *

The daycare moms had to be dragged away by security when the collectively launched over the mother of the kid with meningitis, demanding to know why in Earth she hadn't vaccinated him. The mother didn't care about the furious herd, though, and paid little if any attention to them as she stuck next to her son while he was being treated. The rest of the children, the teachers and every person who had had recent contact with them were examined on the E.R., where they were either referred to a specialist or let go once the tests showed they weren't infected. Thanks to the help of every doctor and nurse available, things had cleared up by three o'clock and everyone slowly returned to their normal activities.

Since all the consults Regina and Isis had scheduled for the morning had been passed for the following day and the lab was being used solely for the meningitis outburst, Regina had nothing else to do but clinic duty.

Since the E.R. and the clinic were in different parts of the hospital and weren't connected at all, they hadn't been evacuated like some of the other patients at risk of infection, which meant they had been there, unattended for the most part of the day, with only a nurse and an intern.

"Exam 3 has been here since morning," the elderly nurse, Carly, said as she handed Regina the chart. "He's showing shortness of breath and airways irritation."

"He's waited this long because he's couching?" Regina asked, checking the chart.

"Uh-huh."

"Okay, I'll clear Exam 3 right away."

Ignoring the many complaining voices on the clinic, Regina headed to the appointed room and opened the door with no qualm. The patient was standing in front of the window with his back to her, talking on his phone. He was tall and dark haired, but that was as much as Regina could get of him, since the light coming in from the window managed to somehow shadow him.

"I'm sorry for the delay," Regina started, not paying him much attention. "I'm Dr. Boomowski. What seams to be the problem, mister..." her eyes shot back to the chart in search of the patient's name, something she hadn't bothered to check before. "Mr. Peace--"

As the word came out of her mouth and the sound reached her ears, Regina's eyes widened in shock, surprise and fear. Her head tilted up to meet her patient's eyes and found –oh, lucky her- Warren Peace's amused arched of brow.

Next thing Regina knew, she had left the exam room, closed the door and leaned on it with her eyes shut hard, mentally repeating the word shit.

_Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. _

She knew he lived there, in Seattle, relatively nearby her, but that didn't mean they had to even meet. It was a large, large city, after all and there were lots of places where she could hide from Warren. apparently the hospital was no longer one of them.

"Dr. Boomowski?" the elderly nurse inquired. "Is everything Okay?"

On the same time, Warren Peace knocked on his side of the door.

"Every thing is fine," Regina choked out. "I just... remembered I have a patient I need check on so could you be a sweetheart and get someone else to see Mr. Peace?"

The door opened then and Regina had to struggle to remained standing instead of landing on Warren's muscular arms. _Don't think about his arms!_ she reprehended herself.

"I'm sorry," he said calmly, as if he hadn't just run into an old lady friend of his. "I really have to get back to work. You mind if get this over with?"

His inscrutable expression along with nurse Carly's questionable frown got the best of Regina. She nodded stiffly and reluctantly followed Warren back to the exam room.

He sat on the stretcher and patiently waited till she put on the gloves and brought the instrumental tray next him. He'd changed, she saw that immediately. He'd never been exactly on the skinny side, but now, after ten years, he simply looked bigger; even through his fancy suit she could see his muscles –now casually relaxed- tense as he moved and walked, his hands laxly resting over his knees so capable of strength and power. His hair was short now, completely black with not red lock. But his face –God, his face- it hadn't changed. Well, it had, but that was expected after all this time. He looked mature, prepared, capable... of what she didn't know. His expressions however, were just as she remembered: amusingly telling or inscrutable at his own command. As much as she would like to deny or ignore it, Regina had to admit that after ten years, she'd missed terribly Warren's amused crock of brow. Just like the one he was displaying now.

"So," he started. "It's good to see you, Reg. I didn't know you were living in Seattle," he only got a hum as response while Regina was preparing the exam kit. "You like it here?"

"Yeah, sure," still without paying him attention, she wrote something on the chart.

"Great. What the hell happened to your eyes?" he suddenly blurted out. "And your hair... It's..."

"I like it," she gritted out.

"If you say so."

"Open your mouth and say ah," she commanded and he obliged. While looking inside his throat with the penlight and ignoring his piercing chocolate eyes, Regina answered his previous question. "Silver eyes draw too much attention and I got tired years ago to explain they weren't contact glasses."

"I hate to break it to you, but you draw attention no matter how ordinary the color of your eyes is."

"Don't talk!" she scolded, pushing his tongue down with the help of a plastic stick. "What the hell are you doing here?" he couldn't answer, of course, a fact she took advantage of. "After all this time you can't just walk in and act like nothing happened. And my hair and eyes look great!" she retrieved the penlight to her scrubs pocket, threw away the plastic lolly pop and rounded him. The end of her stethoscope on his back, Regina ordered him to cough. "And what the hell happened to you? Your phone was disconnected, I wrote at least a thousand e-mails and got no reply. And that only during the year after high school ended. At least I got the hint," she snorted. "Cough again."

"Reg..."

"It's Dr. Boomowski to you."

"Regina," he said warningly. "I have good reasons."

"I'm not interested."

"Fine, then finish the exam and I'll stay away of your life," he barked. "That's what you want, right?"

She turned his back on him with the excuse of picking something from the tray. She handed him a plastic breathing mask with a transparent tube attached to its end. "Breathe in it, please," once he had, she handed him another one. "Now cough."

"What happened to your tattoos?" she asked.

"They're still there," he assured. "Just covered with synthetic skin. See?" he unbuttoned his cuffs and lifted his sleeves.

"Impressive," Regina nodded. "And what about your red lock?" she went on, watching the short dark hair covering his head. "Hellfire still has it."

"Hellfire has to cover it too," Warren admitted softly.

"Does he have to cover himself with Armani also?" Regina said skeptically with arched brow.

"I tried going to the office wearing Levi's with my leather jacket but they wouldn't let me through the door."

She nodded lowering her eyes only a bit. "So if Hellfire is the real you, who is this?"

"I'll tell you over dinner."

Regina gasped. She hadn't seen that one coming. Jaw set, she reverted to her doctor role. "You probably inhaled some strange particles lately in the form of smoke or something, which are irritating your airways and your lungs are trying to clear them by coughing. I'll have these," she showed him the air stuffed tubes. "tested and I'll have a nurse call you and confirm the diagnosis. The coughing should go in a few days."

"Why don't you call me to confirm the diagnosis and tell me what time I should pick you up?" he suggested.

"We're not having dinner," she determined as she left the exam room.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Isis said as she watched Regina furiously attack her lunch. "An old boyfriend of yours shows up and wants to take out on a date? Is that what you've been telling me? Is that what took you a whole morning to tell me?"

"That's the short version, yeah," Regina gritted out.

"And you don't want to go out with him because you had a bad break up?" Isis nodded, trying to put all the pieces of Regina's long story together.

"We had a great break up," she retorted angrily. "It's what happened after the break up what bothers me. He ignored me," she stated. "He told me he wasn't ready yet, so when I try to contact him and keep in touch, he ignored me. And it's been ten long years, Is, I made up a whole new life. I don't need this kind of drama."

"Uh-huh," she nodded, not exactly convinced. "He said he had reasons...?"

"I don't want to hear about his reasons," Regina went on, taking it all out on Isis. "I don't care if he was too busy, he could have at least texted to let me know he was still alive. I deserved that much!"

"If he said he wasn't ready then, he might have had trouble coping with...?

"I was damaged too! I had a lot of bad relationships and let pass a lot of good ones because I was still in love with him!"

"Okay, then..."

"He's evil! He doesn't deserve me anymore! There was a time I believed he did, a time I waited by the freaking phone for him to call me! But no more," she shook her head, smirking. "I am not the same Regina I used to be. I'm stronger and I'm not gonna get all worked up over him again. Not this time. I don't want to have anything to do with Warren Peace."

Isis nodded aprovingly, slightly frowning. "Then why have you been talking about him for the past fourteen hours?"

Before Regina could come up with a kick ass comeback, nurse Carly approached their table with a chart on her hands. "Doctor? Mr. Peace's labs are back."

"Let me see!" Regina said a little bit too excitedly. "Yes! There's nothing wrong with him!" she beamed happily, having to stop due to Isis irritated expression. "Call him and confirm the diagnosis," she then asked calmly to nurse Carly. "Tell him to stay away from torched pillow factories the next time."

"Torched pillow factory?" Isis frowned. "You think he was around that factory last week when Hellfire caught those villains?"

"Probably," Regina said naturally. "Maybe he even got a glimpse of Hellfire. But what I do not want is to ever again get a glimpse of Warren," she assured. "Did I ever tel you about that one time...?"

Isis tiredly sank in her chair as she heard Regina go on and on about Warren while stating she didn't want to talk about him. It was going to be a long day.

Hunter's was one of the top restaurants in Seattle. So top you had to get booked with at least six months of anticipation if wanted to go and see what the big deal was about. It was a rare in-between of classy and hip, with supposedly great food and impeccable service. Regina had never been there, she didn't see the whole point in calling so far in advance only to have a meal when she could perfectly have a sandwich for dinner. But it was Isis birthday and she had taken the trouble to make reservation, so Regina was there to celebrate her new friend's thirty five birthday.

Given they'd only known each other for less than six months, Regina only knew Isis birthday was coming up when Isis herself told her three days ago that dinner was at eight at Hunter's. Embarrassed that she hadn't asked such an important thing before, Regina refused to make up any excuse for missing the party and determined to have a great time. After all, she really needed the distraction.

Seeing Warren had proven hard on her, but not seeing him again after that day in the hospital was even worst. She kept waiting for him to show up in the middle of her shift, or to see him waiting for her to go to her appartment at night. So much Regina wanted that to happen that she'd spent all her free nights at her place instead of the lab, just waiting for Warren to show up when she'd made it perfectly clear she wasn't interested.

She felt like she was seventeen again. How pathetic was that? Warren wasn't going to show up because he wasn't interested. He'd just asked her out to be polite, and she'd politely said no. That was it.

"Evening, ma'am," the receptionist – a short old man who needed to stand on a stool so that he could be around the same height avare as the costumers- gave her a tight, professional smile, overly done in Regina's taste, but nonetheless in accord with the demands of such a classy place as that was.

"Hi," Regina greeted. "I'm here under the Isis Reynolds reservation."

The old man quickly checked that information on the plasma screen built in his podium. Then he nodded to one of the ushers, who approached her right away. "If you'll follow me ma'am," he said as he bowed a few inches down and started to lead the way.

Regina crossed the crowded dinning are past the bar in his wake, admiring the soberly, yet undoubtedly expensive way it was decorated. The tall, ornamental ceiling with golden molding was in opposition to the white, straight walls, empty if not by plasmas displaying masters' works and live views, and the monumental stained glass window that dominated a whole wall from end to end, Seattle's familiar white mountains and deep sky line framed in purple velvet drapes. Summed up with the dim lighting, the soft tickling of the silvery and china, it was a perfect place for romance. Why would Isis chose that place to celebrate her birthday?

The usher stopped by a table set for two located by the window and draw out a chair for Regina.

"This must be a mistake," Regina smiled. "I'm here for Isis Reynolds birthday part. It's a group thing."

The usher, momentarily confused, checked with the receptionist through his head set. "Everything seems to be in order, miss. This is the table you're appointed to."

Regina wanted to argue, she was actually always willing to do so, but she had the feeling that wasn't the wisest place to start yelling at the incompetent usher and his equally incompetent receptionist buddy. When Isis and the rest of the group showed up, the birthday girl could do all the yelling she wanted, as as her right. On the meantime, Regina would have a drink, maybe take a look at the cart so she'd be ahead on the rest and would have more time to consider all the delicious options without the pressure of hurrying up because the others were starving. They said Hunter's had the best squab in...

A glass of red wine was deposited in front of her, preceding Warren Peace, who sat directly opposite to her, smirking all the way down. As Regina's lips pursed and her fake brown eyes darkened dangerously, he chuckled. He _dared_ to chuckle at her.

"I'm waiting for someone," she gritted out.

"I know," Warren grinned mischievously.

Quick to jump to conclusions, Regina pleaded desperately. "Please tell me you didn't do what I think you just did."

Warren considered that for a second. Then he shrugged. "Okay," he smiled slowly. "Your friend Isis didn't call me last week and she didn't help me put this whole thing together. This is nothing but a crazy coincidence."

Was it just her or Warren had gotten a little too sarcastic for her taste?

"God, I hate you."

"No, you don't."

"I'm getting there."

He chuckled again. That was as much as Regina could take without getting ballistic with him so, before the dark side of her temper kicked in, she stood up to leave. She hadn't even reached for her purse, though, when Warren's strong hand detained her.

The crash between her bare forearm and his soft, agile hand was totally unexpected and brought Regina to a halt, memories of gone times flashing by her eyes, goose flesh spreading through her body, drawing in a breath she then forgot how to let go. For a second, only one insignificant instant, their eyes met and Warren knew what had just gone through her. He knew, because he'd experienced the same.

"Please," he said, his face serious and straight for the first time on the evening. "What have you got to lose?"

_Everything_, Regina thought. She sat anyway.

"So," Regina finally started after a few minutes of silence from both sides of the table, finding courage on the glass of wine she drank at once. "How did you get Isis to lie to me?"

"It was actually her idea," he confessed, ignoring the fact that Regina was now reaching for the bottle of wine and pouring herself a little too much. "I planned to show up in at the hospital everyday and sent you embarrassing stuff till you gave in."

"Embarrassing?" she arched her brow sarcastically.

"You know, hundreds and hundreds of roses, giant talking teddy bears, hired musicians," he shrugged. "The sort of stuff you'd hate."

"Thank God she called you first," Regina admitted, truly horrified.

He smiled warmly. "She said something about you going on and on _and on_ about me," Warren let out innocently.

Regina, color rising, half snorted, half laughed, her upper lip twitching awkwardly and avoiding his intensive stare at all costs.

"It's Okay," he said cooly, opening the cart. "I'll have you admit it by the end of the date."

"This isn't a date," Regina corrected, taking his lead and inspecting the cart.

His chocolate orbs shot up. "I plan on kissing you when I drop you off at your place. This is a date."

* * *

Why couldn't she just shrug him off? Seeing him and hearing the sound of his voice and not feel a thing? Why did her heart beat faster when he smiled? She'd almost forgotten how that felt, and Regina knew for sure she'd be completely happy if she could continue her life without feeling that ever again and endevoring to forget it, just like she'd done for the past ten years. She'd moved on. Why, oh why did she feel like she was teen again and her heart was about to be broken?

But there was no way to help it, at least not for that night while she was sitting opposite to him and talking about what had been of their lives... Hopefully, Regina would be able to be a stone by the end of the "date" and make it perfectly clear that she wanted nothing to do with him. She had to believe she was strong enough to do that, to resist him, but sadly, she wasn't stpid.; after Warren confessed he planned to kiss her, that kiss was all she could think about, remembering other of his kisses, wondering if his taste had changed after all that time, losing herself staring at his lips. That was the most embarrassing part, as open and revealing as she was in her longing, because he'd noticed and damn him, he was gloating about it.

She had to hate Warren. He was the one doing hat to her, making a sensible woman as herself a complete nervous wreck! And she absolutely had to stop drinking wine, the last thing she needed was getting drunk; _then _she wouldn't be able to be a stone and refuse his warm, soft kisses...

_No more wine!_

"How did you get reservations for this place so quickly?" she asked after he was done interrogating her about her collage years.

"The company I work at owns it," he answered mildly.

"What exactly do you do?" it had only then occurred to Regina that he hadn't mentioned anything about his job.

"I'm a junior CEO. Basically I take care of all the things and deals the actual CEO doesn't want to do but continues to refuse to retire," Warren explained, pouring some more wine in both their glasses.

"Wow. The must really trust you!"

"Well..." he looked around quickly, making sure everyone was minding their own business, the leaned over the table, closer to her. Regina, alway curious, did the same. "The CEO is actually Firefox. He offered to train me, pay my education and get me a steady job if I wanted to be Seattle's prime hero."

"He retired last year, didn't he? Oh!" she gasped excitedly. "What's his name?" Firefox was one of the few heroes who had struggled and succeeded at keeping his identity a secret, even to the hero comunity.

"I can't tell you," Warren half grimaced. Then, a great idea lit a lightbulb on his mind. "That's actually why I can't tell you exactly where I work at. At least not now."

"Right," Regina nodded. They were still leaning over the table, their noses inches away. She suddenly realised of this when the object of her distraction -Warren's lips- caught her attention once again and the proximity became all too tempting to her. Regina drew back to her chair, pretending she hadn't been about to loose her mind. "What's it like? Being a prime hero, I mean."

"It's great," he confessed straight away, no need for lying there. "All the pressure and all those lives depending on you, their gratitude..." Regina smiled warmly, he looked like a kid talking about his favourite toy. "It's almost everything I've ever wanted."

She didn't have to ask what it was he felt he was missing. His look said it plainly enough. Luckily, Warren noticed the rush of panic that seemed to rush through her eyes and chose to mantain the conversation on a safer ground for now. "Besides, I get to wear a kick ass leather otfit and roast things without getting in any trouble. It's beyond cool."

"And what about your cover job? Is it beyond cool too, Mr. CEO's leftoves," Regina smirked.

"It kind of is," he admitted as if he was actually surpreised of that truth. "When I started at Wharton I thought I'd hate it but I'd do it anyway because I'd get to be the hero I wanted to be, but then the classes and working here a few weeks each year..." he shrugged. "I realised I wasn't going to hate it. That it was interesting."

"And the fact that you get to boss around and make lots and lots of people who are surely significantly older than you hate you has nothing to do with it," Regina added ironically.

"Me? Deliverately make people hate me? Where did you get that idea?"

"People don't outgrow bad habbits," she stated. "I know I haven't."

"Ah, but what you call bad habbits I see as endearing qualities," he smirked back. "Tell me about the hospital. I noticed the scrubs weren't exactly your choice of colors."

"Blue makes patients think of surgery and gray reminds them of the morgue; us rekated to babies got pink because we're so happy and perky."

She stopped talking when the waiter approached them with dessert. Chocolate cake.

A single piece of chocolate cake.

Regina's eyes flared from the suculent cake to Warren's amused gaze. "You did that on purpose," she stated as she dig in the cake.

"Of course I did. Havent you met me?" he joked, stealing the small piece of cake she'd separated with her fork and taking it into his mouth. "You were saying something about being happy and perky?" he said mildly, staring back at her. "I hope that vicious look you're shooting at me now is well hidden from the expecting moms."

"Well, they're yet to attempt to steal my cake. Anyway," Regina continued, struggling to keep Warren's fork away from the piece she intended to eat. "I'm actualy working at Reid Memorialbecause my sponsor wanted me to focus on my reaserch."

"Sponsor?"

"Yeah. His name is Lawrence Anstruther-Fanleigh, ever heard from him?"

"I think he owns a company," Warren lied very convincingly.

"Well, somehow he got interested and wanted me to run my trial over here," so busy she was fighting over the cake with Warren, it didn't occur to her that that might be a distraction and that he wasn't being a hundred per cent honest with her right then. "It's about the super gene and how it causes determinated powors to appear in determinated individuals and not in others."

"How's that going?"

"I found exactly where it's located on the chromosome sequence, but I'm still working on the whole manipulating deal. And I can't prove any of my theories if I can't manipulate the gene."

He sensed the slightly bitter note on her voice. "I'm sure you'll find a way."

"I know that," she assured him in between cake pieces. "I just want it to happen now. I'm too urgent."

"I know what you mean."

* * *

As they drove back down to her apartment in Warren's BMW , Regina's urge for succeeding on her trial was replaced by another kind of urge.

She hadn't exactly been a nun during the past ten years, and she was the first to admit it, with the exception of her last months at Hopkins, after the whole Chip Smith drama she was determined not to think about. There had been several guys, all equally unimportant and really not many, but certainly more than just a few, mainly because she hadn't been interested –or prepared- for any kind of relationship. She had never celebrated her birthday with a guy, never had an anniversary, never did Valentines. And Regina'd never regretted it; she'd accepted that she simply wasn't the kind of woman who had boyfriends or got too intimate with anyone. Out of all the people she'd been friends with in the past years, Megan remained the best of them, closely followed by Mike –whom Megan was married to- Colin and Kyle. She almost never got to see any of them, but they were her people, the only ones she could truly be herself with, aside from her family. Warren had once been someone she could be true with, no need to hide that to herself –except all those times she'd done it on purpose to protect her weak heart.

And now he wanted to kiss her. The real issue laying herein was that she wanted him to.

How? After so long, how could get such a reaction for her? And it had been long, and they had changed, and they weren't the same people they used to be, so why did it feel so good to believe that in one kiss she could find that they were?

Regina was a doctor. She'd graduated top her class at Hopkins. She was a bookworm. She was _nice_ with her patients and fellow doctors and nurses; ten years ago she was barely nice to her beloved ones, never cared to study, just go through classes carelessly and somehow managing to get great grades. Now she could stay up all night researching and working and still smile to the expectant mothers she dealt with on a daily basis after having no sleep the night before. She was good with taking orders from her superiors, she cared about people, no just herself. She had changed.

And Warren... He practically run a company by himself, had gone to business collage, joined a business frat, drove a brand new car, wore designers suits, kept his red stroked hair and flaming wrists from the world and had the amazing ability to make strangers feel comfortable around him. That Warren she didn't know. Where had the grouchy, intimidating bad boy, enclosed in black leather and driving his honest to God old car gone to?

Right, he was saving Seattle and the world altogether.

A kiss –as hot and great as knew it'd be- wasn't going to change who they were right now. Ten years ago, when they were both dark and relatively miserable, they were a perfect match; but now...

"This place looks great," he commented as he peaked out of the window to see the front of the apartment building, the front yard covered in white snow. He turned to her. "I'm gonna kiss you now," he stated, as if knowing she wouldn't offer no resistance.

She didn't, of course. After all, a kiss was a kiss, no matter how much i could crush the hopes she'd been building up for the past week.

It was hesitant at first, from both sides. But that fire they had shared in the past took no time to appear and surround them. His breath becoming her breath, his taste her taste. It was draining, de­bilitating, stirring... It felt so good! She hadn't realised how starving she was just until then, and as if her whole life depended on that kiss, Regina clung closer to Warren, let loose of her hands and let them explore his neck, his hair, his cheeks...

She was lost in the kiss immediately, and could feel he had too. She'd thought it would prove them that it was completely over between them, that they didn't fit for each other, but if they didn't, how was it that she didn't want to break the connection with him? Every muscle she touched, every single one of his breathes she took in, she'd owned it once. He had been hers and she had been his. And now all that time hadn't gone by, and there was no hospital, no trial sponsor, no mysterious company, no Hellfire... Just Warren and Regina.

And that kiss was _not_ going to end.

* * *

"Stop curling my hair!" Regina said playfully as she scoffed Warren's hand away. "It's straight now, deal with it."

But, no matter how hard she tried, he just wouldn't cease his endeavors. Not that she tried that hard; it felt kind of nice, Regina didn't mind admitting it, waking up next to him almost every day for the past weeks and dally in bed before they go to their respective works. Him curling her short hair with his fingers had become almost a ritual: she'd wake up feeling Warren's agile hands running down her hair, playing with the thick auburn locks until he managed to curly them, which would cause Regina to bitch at him –not meaning it-, which would imply Warren's quick wit to reach surface and they would get in a confrontation. All for plays, and they both knew it. They even had synchronized, somehow, at which point the confrontation ended by itself and they started laughing and kissing, and doing other stuff that had made Regina getting late to work lately.

One of these days she'd surprise him getting a perm, but she wanted to wait a while, for her hair to grow longer, so she wouldn't look like a Puddle.

The confrontation was coming to an end as they rolled on the bed, tangled on the wrinkled sheets, when Warren'r unit –which he'd left on the night table- started beeping. He froze, for a micro second, and reached out for it.

"Something going on down town," he informed her, stony faced. "I need to be there."

He gave her a sorry kind of kiss and left the bed in haste, retrieving his clothes and hurriedly putting them on.

"You have to go all the way down to your place to change into your suit?" she asked leaving the bed as well, enclosed on a sheet.

"No, I have a spare one on the car. Where's my sock?" he bent on his knees and looked under the bed.

"Here," Regina handed him one of the largest pairs of sock she possessed. He stopped his quick search and dressing to stare back at her with cocked brow. "Make them fit," she commanded, guessing correctly what was on his mind. "At least they're clean."

He obliged without wasting another minute. After running a hand through his head to give a presentable look if any, he leaned down and kissed Regina good by.

"Be careful," she whispered before she let go.

She knew he would, but she couldn't help the lump on her stomach she felt every time he had to leave to save Seattle. It happened quite frequently, not every day, but it was still something they had to deal with. Other than the oppressing worry Regina had no real issue with his devoting his time to save people, it actually made her proud, even though she sometimes woke up in the middle of the night alone, with a note from him that said he had to leave, or having dinner or a movie interrupted by his unit beeping. As a doctor, Regina was used to beeping, even though she hardly ever got paged during her free time. Yet another point in pursuing a fellowship as a fertility doctor/geneticist.

Regina was getting used to the oppressing lump she felt every time Warren left for his duty, and even though it could be a bitch, she loved the feeling of it disappearing when he returned to her, whole and safe.

"Where is your mind today?" Isis asked in a sing sang voice. "Could it possibly have anything to do with that hot boyfriend of yours?"

Regina's cheeks heated up. She still felt awkward when somebody mentioned Warren and her as a couple. Old habits die hard, after all.

"He had a big presentation today," she lied. That was something she was getting used to do; cover for him came out of her naturally. "I'm just hoping he did Okay."

"Uh-huh," Isis nodded, writing something on the chart she was filling. "Where did you said he worked again?"

"He's the right hand of his company's CEO," she said avoiding giving names she wasn't actually aware of. "He really does a lot of stuff. Like the other day, he had to sit a break a deal with this Japanese people because he knew their language and could make them feel more comfortable."

Isis raised his head and frowned. "He speaks Japanese?" she asked as they left the nurse station and headed to their patients room.

"Fluently. And a whole bunch of other languages too; he was kinda nerdy growing up," she added, opening the door. There was a couple inside.

"Mr. and Mrs. Belt," Isis greeted warmly. "It's good to see you again."

"You too, Dr. Reynolds," Mrs. Belt replied. "Are you ready to get us pregnant?" she grinned.

"We will be working on it right away. Dr. Boomowski here is going to take care of the preparations for the in-vitro. Dr Boomowski?"

"Basically, what we intend to do is to get as many eggs from you and sperm samples from your husband," Regina stepped in. "I understand you've had other children affected with genetic diseases," the Belts nodded sadly, the husband holding tight to his wife's hand. "I'm very sorry, but we hope we can isolate as many affected chromosomes as we can from both your samples and fertilize your eggs. It hasn't been done in America yet, but had good results in Germany and France. After the fertilization of the embryos, it goes as any regular in vitro. We will be focusing on the identification of the genetic disorders and managing to get the refined samples to produce healthy embryos."

"You said it hasn't been done in America?" Mr. Belt asked.

"Remember we talked about this, Brandon?" Isis reminded him kindly. "After you lost Jessy and wanted me to implant a embryo who stood no chance at getting sick?" he nodded. "That wasn't possible then, which is why Claire got William's after all. But Dr. Boomowski is a very gifted geneticist and one of the few specialists in the country who dares try this procedure. We hope one day it will be available to all, but for now we can only run trials."

"We understand Dr. Reynolds," Mrs. Belt assured. "And we also know there are risks... but we want to face them. We will have a healthy baby," she nodded to excitedly. "You'll see it."

"Do you think they're gonna, I don't know, love this healthy baby more than they do Claire?" Regina commented as they left the exam room and fetched a nurse to take Mr. and Mrs. Belt to get their respective samples. "I mean, that little girl's got a few years to live, and that's pushing it. This treatment is going to be very expensive."

"Forget to mention that to the boar of Ethics today when we argument our trial," Isis warned Regina. "If they don't buy it, that's it. We have to be confident and worry only about the medicine. If those parents want to spend lots and lots of money in procedures that may or may not work, that's their problem."

"Okay."

* * *

"I talked to the people of T&E at lunch, they're very excites about the fusion. Also the board of directors called in an urgent session for this afternoon," Warren informed as he walked in Larry Anstruther-Fanleigh's office. "Apparently someone broke in one of the storage we keep in San Diego."

"Which one?"

"LP703652."

"Again? What the hell is so amusing about that freaking storage?" Larry burst, standing up and outrageously pacing up in down in front of the window. "We have fifteen stores there! Fifteen! How come they're only interested in breaking into that one? It has blankets inside it, for God's sake!"

"There's actually seventeen, but I think it's got something to do with what under the storage," Warren speculated calmly.

"That sanctum was disposed of," Larry dismissed that idea with a wave of her hand. "We keep nothing there."

"We don't, but Super Star High is located nearby, and their gym is also underground. The alarm could be deactivated by one of the students powers, intentionally or not, and once the sanctum is open, the storage lock gets damaged and anybody can get in from the outside. I already talked to Star High," he went on. "And suggested we joined forces to isolate their gym so this won't happen again; they insist to pay back whatever was stolen."

"Damn, I can't tell that to the board," he said scratching his growing beard.

"I was thinking we could-- Wait," Warren narrowed his eyes. "You're meeting the board?"

"Isn't it urgent?"

"Yeah, but you never go to this things," he pointed out.

"Exactly," Larry nodded, then sighed dejectedly and looked back at his protegé with the most innocent expression he could muster. "I guess you'll have to go to the hospital."

Warren's eyes shot wide open. "You wouldn't!"

"Oh, I would," Larry half smiled and sat back behind his thick glass desk. "I'm sending you the files right now-- though I'm sure there's nothing in them which you already don't know," he said as his worn out fingers traveled through the smooth surface of the desk that was designed as a keyboard.

"Larry, I really don't think that's a smart move--"

"Don't be a coward. You knew this would eventually happen," he shrugged.

"Yeah, but this isn't exactly how I planned it--"

"Listen son," he said tiredly. "You have to lie to everybody. That's a fact. You have to keep your identity a secret and there's only a handful of us you can talk and be true with. You don't need to lie to her," he pointed out, as if it was the most obvious thing in the whole world. "Why would you keep doing that?"

"I know Regina," Warren stated. "She's very smart and all, but she has a tendency to get violent when she gets hurt and then she shuts down to the rest of the world. I can't let that happen yet."

"The hospital thing is not your fault."

"She'll disagree--"

"Aah, but what you're really worried about is that she'll put the hospital thing and the other thing that is your fault together and won't speak to you again, ain't I right?"

"Yes," Warren gritted out.

"I've known you for a long time, son, it's time you start acting like the man you are on all matters concerned to Regina Boomowski," he shook his head, turning his head to the screen. "Get in touch to Mark Goodfry before you go--"

"Already did."

"Did you tell them about the--"

"They liked our fuel proposition. They're signing."

"Good! Good!" Larry beamed, the matter of the hospital apparently the farthest thing from his mind. "I sense a big Christmas bonus coming up from you, Warren. Now go to the hospital," he commanded.

Regina was going to viciously chop him into little pieces.

* * *

"And that is why we believe this procedure will succeed," Regina finished exposing their trial to the Board of Ethics.

There were fifteen people gathered in the hospital's conference room, several physicians Regina worked with among them; the dean of Medicine she only knew from those little meetings and as well as the six hospital's most important benefactors, except for the owner of the hospital, whom had personally sought after her at Hopkins and brought her here. His sole presence was more than enough to get the Board's approval for her procedures, and Regina had to go and get it more than once since she'd come to Reid's Memorial. Problem was that public opinion, while expecting the scientists and doctors to find a cure for everything, felt badly toward gene manipulation, and since that was practically what Regina did for a living... She didn't resent the Board for having to go through such trouble before she did anything, after all, they were just watching their backs. And no one wanted a law suit for malpractice, especially Regina.

"Our concerns are quite logical, as you can see," the dean of medicine said. "There are only a handful of successful precedents, and none in America."

"There is no legislation that condemns it," one of the benefactors countered. "And the patients were willingly introduced to the trial completely aware of the risks they were taking. We have allowed procedures done to embryos--"

"This isn't just a procedure," one of the physicians cut in impatiently. "We would be creating a life from two DNA samples which would first be stripped from some of the genetic qualities they carry. It could be an abomination."

"Yeah, I don't even want to imagine what the religious groups around the country will have to say about this--"

"That isn't the point--"

"And we're not going public about this until the results are favourable--"

"Try telling that to the patients--."

"Have they been seen by a psychologist?"

As they argued, and Isis eyes went from one speaker to the other, Regina stared directly to the back of the chair at the other end of the table where Mr. Anstruther-Fanleigh was sitting, waiting for him to speak his mind. He usually didn't waited so long.

It was also odd that he wasn't facing the rest of the board, and was instead with his back to all of the people in the room, herself included. Had she not seen his elbow Regina would have guessed he wasn't even sitting there, for the back of the chair was higher than his head.

"Dr. Reynolds, is your opinion that Mrs. Belt's condition is fit for an implant?"

"Yes, sir, she responded very well last time and all her tests show that she is in perfect health."

"Except for breeding," another said. "She had two children with Williams Syndrome and an abortion of a third sickly embryo."

"Mr. and Mrs. Belt are both host of a great deal of genetic conditions," Regina cut in. "It's extremely odd to occur on a couple, but not impossible. That doesn't mean they shouldn't have any more babies, when with help the can conceive healthy ones."

"I agree with Dr. Boomowski."

Mr. Anstruther-Fanleigh's chair finally turned around and to go by the looks of the members of the board, the expected to see exactly the person who was sitting on it. This was not the case of Regina.

She got a heads up with the voice, literally. Her head tilted up so abruptly her neck hurt. She hadn't gasped; she would have to be breathing for that to happen. Instead, her eyes had flared open and confusion, the first real emotion she managed to put her finger on, was instantly replaced by anger.

Lots and lots of anger.

Warren saw it, but knew he was safe from now. She wouldn't make a scene in front of all that people. She would wait until they were alone so she could murder him and dispose his body so that no one could link her to the crime.

As if his life didn't hang by a thread, Warren elaborated his statement. "We have the consent from the parents, the labs that support the procedure, the success of several cases abroad, and the equipment and facilities to carry on with it. I speak for Mr. Anstruther-Fanleigh when I say this could be a huge opportunity for the hospital. The first in America to succeed."

"This isn't a business, Mr. Peace," the dean of medicine reminded him curtly.

"I'm well aware of what this is, ma'am," he smiled, and turned to the other benefactors whom, like him, saw it like a business. "But Dr. Boomowski and many other physicians were hired to make this hospital a more renown one. How ever are we going to get there if we don't take some chances? As much as I understand it, this is a valid procedure, led by capable doctors and with fit patients. I don't see why Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Boomowski shouldn't do it."

"You didn't tell me Warren worked with Anstruther!" Isis said as soon as they left the conference room to let the board deliberate.

"He didn't tell me either," she gritted out.

"Ooh. You're going to inflict pain into him, aren't you?" she asked guessing correctly the look in Regina's face.

"He's gonna cry like a baby," Regina promised grimly. "How long do you think they'll take?"

"Not long I hope," she sighed as she sat in a couch on the nearby lobby.

They did take long, so long Regina wasn't even there when they got out of that room. She was at the clinic because one of the doctors had bailed on them and they needed a hand, and since Regina was so pissed at Warren right now it was probably for the best that she wasn't there when the decision was delivered. Better this way, she could let out some of her anger.

How could he do that to her?! He'd lied to her face and not flinch once. He had taken a hand on her life like he was some arrogant despot, but that was it. He was going to regret it.

And she'd actually thought they were heading somewhere this time. Well, she hadn't thought, she'd hoped things would be better now they were older and more mature, but not all the hoping in the world could have stopped this. Even if he'd told her right away where he worked at, even if they hadn't been together for the past month, she wouldn't have forgiven him.

It was so clear now. She hadn't been hired because she was excellent, or because she was an important asset to the hospital, or because her research was promising. She had been lured here to Seattle because Warren was a jerk! Because he wanted to be with her for some reason and what better way to do so but dragging her to his domain? And Anstruther had helped him! How could they be so mean?

She barely got excited when Isis texted her saying the Board had approved the procedure. It was great for the Belts, but she wasn't going to be here to see it through. Regina refused to be working out of some old boyfriends machinations.

A cup of coffee was deposited in front of her eyes in the nurse station.

"Take your guilt coffee away before you get damaged by it," she warned without even turning back to see him. She didn't need to, she felt him.

"We have to talk," he said. There was no strange tone in his voice, no guilt, no fear, nothing.

"I'm not interested," and she turned around to leave.

Problem was she had miscalculated the distance between both of him, so she pretty much ended up in his arms, which made it exemplary easy for him to coax her into somewhere more private.

"We can either do this here," Warren whispered. "Or we can save both of us the embarrassment," temper rising, Regina saw as some nurses gathered and collectively watched them. "You're not gonna like what I have to say, I don't even feel comfortable with it. But we need to talk."

Regina grudgingly complied. She was already leaving the hospital, she didn't need some big scene to add to it.

She led him to the on call room, which was luckily empty. Otherwise she would've have to break her number one rule and use her powers to persuade them out of there. She did however locked the door before she leaned on it; it was going to be an ugly argument and given she had a history of her powers getting ballistic when she fought with, Regina rather no one walked in and witnessed it. She hadn't lost control like that for ten years, more exactly, since he'd gone to her home one night and told her he didn't want her love. He had later told her he'd lied then, but still she wasn't taking any chances. Especially when she was practically seeing red.

Warren didn't mince words. If that was going to be bad, then why not to bring on the big guns?

"I work with Anstruther; he's my mentor," he started with even toned voice. "I didn't tell you because I knew you'd think I asked him to bring you over here."

"Nice conclusion. You can inform him I quit," Regina spited out.

"I didn't even know he had hired you until it was a done deal, I swear."

"So it wasn't your fault. Then why would you keep it from me? You're feeling guilty, I can see it," she crossed her arms over her chest and raised her chin. "Why's that?"

"Chip Smith," Warren answered simply.

"What does this have to do with my stalker?"

"I hired him."

_Okay, that does it!_

There were hardly any objects she could use as projectiles, she should have taken him to the lounge room. Anyhow, Regina settled with launching him towards the wall as hard as her powers allowed her, which was was _hard_. Warren really didn't appreciate it, but he took it like a man as he ungracefully slid from the wall to the floor, where he remained sitting till his head stopped whirling. He did deserve it.

"I had to go to therapy," Regina barked, walking a few steps closer, raising him from the floor as he tried to stand up and pushed him back against the wall. "I had to get a restraining order," she separated him from the wall and pushed him back. "I changed my apartment, my car, my phone, my e-mail account," every word came with another pounding. "I even jumped in the first opportunity I had to leave the freaking city even when that meant coming here, where you so conveniently live, and you're telling me you hired him?! What's wrong with you?!"

"I didn't hired him to stalk you. He was part of a selected team--" Warren tried to explain.

"I don't care! Why did you do it?"

"Because I wanted to keep you safe!"

"If you keep lying to me Warren, so help me God I'll--."

"I'm not lying," he stated furiously. "I have enemies ever since Hellfire started existing, even before I went solo. And honestly, if they found out who I was it wasn't that far fetched that they'd track down my connections. My mom has been under surveillance too, as the rest of my family. I wasn't going to take any chance with you."

"I'm a big girl Warren, I can handle my own life," she snorted. "Did you actually think I wasn't going to notice I was being tailed?"

"You didn't notice the others before Smith," he shot back.

Eyes flaming, Regina dropped him to the ground. "How many people did you sent?"

"Groups of five at a time," he confessed, not the least bit regretful. "One group a year, a total of six groups."

Regina turned her back on him. She just couldn't see him right now, his eyes saying he was sorry, his mouth uttering the words. The disappointment was too great. He'd been worried about her for the past years, he actually felt she was too important and cared enough to put people to protect her, because he couldn't bear something happening to her. His feeling were strong, but why hadn't he contacted her in all those years? If he cared so much why hadn't he saved both of the trouble and picked up the damn phone and say he still thought about her? All that time she thought she'd been alone but now it turned out he'd been around her, constantly caring about her from the distance. How could she handle that?

"I really had nothing to do with your job," she felt his hand on her shoulder squeezing warmly. "Please don't leave because I'm an idiot."

At that point she could hardly keep the tears from falling. Slowly, she turned back to face him.

"This was a mistake," she sobbed. "It's over," she walked away, but Warren could perfectly hear her say "Again," before she disappeared through the door.

* * *

Her home had never seemed so depressing before, it felt cold no matter how high the heater was, dark, yet all the lights were turned one, and empty, even though she'd played music constantly so she could keep her thoughts at bay.

She'd chosen to go home instead of staying at the lad that night. If she was going to be moody and snappy, there was no reason why the rest of her co worker had to put up with it. I sis had said so, the nurses had complained of her bitchy retorts and she'd made a clinic patient cry. Things were not good.

That whole thing with Warren was really affecting her job, and she couldn't help it. She tried to forget, to ignore, to put the other cheek, but it still caught up with her when she least expected it. And what really worried her was that things hadn't improved after a week, they'd worsen. If she can't careful, she might loose her job and her founding, the only thing that kept her sane and connected to the rest of the world.

Warren had kept a solemn silence, out of respect of her hurt feelings, but he'd let her know he wasn't done with her. Regina didn't know what to think, what to plan, how to react when he finally showed up and demanded they worked thing up. If he actually showed up, which she doubted. It had been like that in the past, when things got messy, they both walked away, because they were both too proud or too stupid, whichever applied better. And nothing had changed between them, so why bother pretend they had? They were grown ups now, but they might as well be seventeen in all matter concerning to their relationship. It just wasn't worth it. And Regina was glad, relieved, that he hadn't done the foolish thing a announce to the world they were back together, however briefly.

Something was disturbing her loud music. It was a sound she couldn't identify, but as curiosity would have it, she wanted know what the hell was that about. The had the central computed turned the music down to a low ebb, and then the sound became easily recognizable. It was the barking of a dog on the hall,and the animal was causing a very annoying riot. Cursing whoever was its owned, Regina opened her door and stepped into the hallway.

It was a puppy. A big puppy, completely white from head to tail. Its head was long and narrow ending in a pinkish nose, with the tongue coming out of his mouth and the ears up, an instinct reflex as it saw Regina. He stood there watching her for a moment with its head bent to a side, breathing heavily, and then it charged toward her barking with its high pitched little voice.

"Hi, pretty puppy," Regina greeted, patting its head and behind its ears as the puppy tried to climb up her. "Aren't you the prettiest puppy I've ever seen? Yes you are! Where is your master, pretty?"

The puppy had a metallic collar, a modern devise which contained all the information about the dog and its master in a microchip in case the poor animal got lost. All you had to do was press a little button on the side of the collar and a hologram with the information would appear.

At first Regina thought she'd read wrong or that the information was incorrect. It said the dog lived in her apartment, but unless she was blind or had completely ignored the existence of the puppy, that wasn't so. What an irresponsible master this poor puppy had! The contact information was wrong and he hadn't even add the name of the animal! People like that shouldn't be allowed to have pets.

And it was so cute! How could anyone loose it?

"You like him?"

Regina gasped, not so mach because of the voice but mainly because the puppy was biting her hand. It wasn't bad though, it barely had teeth and was just playing with her. She forgave it.

The owner of the voice, on the other side, wasn't so privileged.

"What are you doing here?" she asked straight faced.

"I told you we weren't done," he reminded her, the corners of his mouth twitching.

Regina looked down to the puppy, still playing with it. "Yours?"

"No, yours."

"Is this a forgive me gift?"

"No, I got him before we had the fight," he walked the distance that separated them and knelt next to the puppy, who instantly tried to climb him.

"What's his name?"

"He doesn't have one yet. I figure you'd want the honor," he shrugged.

"I don't. I--."

"Regina, lets not do this again," Warren stood, his eyes glowing.

"Do what?"

"Zigzag out of each other's life!" he held her hand, and Regina let him. It was so warm. "I'm sorry I lied, but I know we can do better than this. And it won't happen again--"

"It's not that," she cut in. "You cared about me all these year, why didn't you say something?"

"Can't you tell?" he replied, near to losing his patience. "You freak me out!"

"What?" that really wasn't the answer she expected.

"You always have. You're scary," he confessed.

"If this is how you expect to patch things up--," she retrieved her hand, snorting insulted.

"That's not what I meant," he added quickly. "You scare me when you smile, when you talk, when you cook, when you kiss me--."

"You're afraid of me, I get it," Regina shot back irritably.

"But it's a good kind of fear... Like I'm constantly on my toes..."

"This isn't very flattering!"

"I like it, because I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow and you're unpredictable. You're special and I love all about you, even when you're being bitchy and you act like you've bee cursed and you have a stormy cloud following around. I love all about you," Warren repeated, copping her cheeks with his hands. "That's what freaks me out."

She couldn't say no after that. "You freak me out too," she smiled, while Warren rounded her waist with his arms and lifted her off the ground and kissed thoroughly.

Then the puppy started barking.

* * *

That night was a dream. Since the puppy had no name, they devoted themselves to find the right one for him and walk him to the market to buy appropriate food. It was a Great Dane, and as such he needed a very special diet, as well as lots of exercise. Regina had actually been worried about that, since her apartment was not necessarily big or fit for a dog of his size, and he was going to get really big as he grew up. Warren put her fears at rest, claiming his house outside town had plenty of park for the puppy to enjoy. In case Regina hadn't gotten the hint, he later on specified that he hoped they would soon move in together. Regina didn't oppose to that. She finally decided to name the puppy Lucifer. She said he was so cute he needed a name to bully the other dogs so they wouldn't think he was weak, and what better than to name him after the very devil?

As it was already mentioned it was a dreamy night, and as every dream, there was a time to wake up. They did only when Megan called.

Regina was busy setting the table so Warren took the liberty to answer on the speaker.

"Hey Reggie," Megan's voice said lowly. "I'm whispering because Matty just fell asleep and God forbids he wakes up before I have some time to feel I'm a person rather than his appendage."

"Listen, can I call you back--?" Regina said nervously.

"Hello Hazec," Warren greeted.

"It's Laineker now-- Who is that?"

"Warren."

"Peace? What are you doing there?"

He answered before Regina could interrupt him. "Reg and I worked things up."

"You mean you're back together?! Regina! Why didn't you say anything? How did meet again?"

"I--."

"You didn't know?"

"'Course not," she assured.

Warren stared down to Regina's guilty expression. "Regina is gonna have to call you back, Megan," he replied, his voice frighteningly low and cold. He hung up. "You didn't tell her."

It wasn't a question. She shook her head anyway.

"What about your family, do they know?" he went on menacingly. Regina shook her head again. "Okay, you surely have some good reasons," he say on one of the chairs. "Lets hear it."

Apparently fate continued to hate Regina.

"I wasn't sure we'd last long this time, so I kept it to myself."

"Before the fight, you mean?" he continued to use his cold tone. Regina began to hate it. "What made you think we wouldn't last?"

"Nothing!" she assured him. "I hoped we would!"

"Hoped?" he spited out.

"Yes! I didn't know what would happen, so I hoped and hoped--!"

"It takes more than hoping to build a relationship, Regina," he sure knew how to make his words slice. "You have to actually want it."

"Of course I want it!" she cried, running after him as he approached to the front door. When he tried to open it, she had it slammed shut and stood between it and Warren. "I want it!"

"You keep saying that, but I'm not convinced."

"I want it, I swear--!"

"What is it that you want, exactly?" Warren asked fiercely. Lucifer, poor baby, got scared at all the yelling and was currently curled up under the table. "Cuz honestly, I thought we wanted the same, but I just don't know now."

Desperate at his sudden backing away turning and his back from her, Regina rubbed the tears away from hr eyes.

"I want you to have socks here!" she cried. That definitely got his attention. "So you won't have to use smelly ones or mine! I want you to keep a spare super suit so you won't run back home or change in your car if you have to go!" she began sobbing, but Warren still didn't approach her. "I want to go with you to all those boring company parties you sure have, I want to lie for you when you have to disappear to save the city! I want to rant against Thanksgiving and have pizza instead of turkey with you, I want to make plans with you! I want you to take me to dinner at Hunter's and give me a freaking ring in a freaking champagne glass, or something corny like that you'd know I hate! I want--!"

She didn't get to say what else she wanted. She was interrupted by Warren taking his phone from his pocket and texting something, like they weren't discussing something incredibly important.

"What are you doing?" Regina asked incredulous. She hardly recognized her own voice, it sounded so soar and husky.

"I'm texting my assistant to get socks and other items of clothes delivered here, remind her to put your name in all the plus one I receive from now on and asking her to get a reservation for tonight at Hunter's," he shoved the phone back to his pocket. "I gotta go to the parking lot to get the suit," he went on, approaching her slowly. "You mind?"

Mind what? Oh yeah, she was leaning against the closed door. He gently pulled her away, like she was going to break, and honestly, Regina ouldn't blame him. She did felt about to crumble in the floor. Her legs seemed made of jello.

After opening the door, Warren took a look at his watch. "You're lucky Tiffany's Seattle manager went to school with me. Otherwise he wouldn't open for me this late," he leaned down and kissed a speechless Regina in the cheek. "I'll pick you up in a while."

"Warren?" she asked when she found her voice. "Are you--? Does this--? We're Okay?"

He arched his left brow and smirked like a devil. "More than Okay. I love you."

"I love you too," she smiled and closed the door.

Looking at the interior of her apartment, Regina couldn't believe she'd ever thought it was depressing, empty, cold or dark. It didn't look that way anymore.

"Come on Lucifer!" she called her dog. "We have to find something hot and gorgeous to wear tonight. And, I'm taking the contact glasses of. It's called for, don't you think?" Lucifer barked and jumped around. "Can you believe it? He's making an honest woman out me!"

**The End**

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**Okay people, it has been great writting for you and an honor to know you enjoyed as much as I did. Readers have been asking for a sequel, one shots, more chapters even, and I'm positevely sure when I say that won't be happening. However (and this is an idea I've been pondering for a while now) I'm very tempted to start a spinoff. No matter how proud I am of this fic, all the things I would like to write for Warren and Regina are sadly not enought to continue with them, and I would feel terrible if their story became boring. So this spinoff I'm considering would much better fit my writer's cravings. I'm not sure when I'll post it, so I advise you keep an eye on me. If you're interested on what will my characters will be, then I suppose I can treat you with some "coming soon" trivia, just ask away and I'll answer. Anyway, I hope you liked te epilogue and will let me know by reviewing; remember this is the last update for this fic, and as such deserves lots and lots of reviews.**


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